Covetous of $20,000,000 in Taxes Annually The rear motive behind Kewangel's agitation against the Central Govern: ment is "to "obtain the '$20,00,000.4 Annually in opium taxes and to divert! this for its huge armament. budget, According to usually" well-informed foutees here, Kwangsi, it is stated, iva poor provines, and {ts revenue does "not cover expenditure. Ite budget is divided into national and Drovineial sections, but, since Kwang:
always. has been, more oF the Central" rament, A rudger has never been controlled
'According to. the 1034 national to budget of Kwangsi, which included the salt, tobacco, wine, stamp, mining, ud other taxes, the national' revenue fof the province totalled $1,010,000, while expenditure amounted to $14, 770,000, deficit of $12,800,000. Of the annual expenditure, finance, educ tion. and other cultural items totalled $480,000,'and the remaining $14,200,000, is alleged here, was used entirely for armaments, According to the 1984 provincial budget of the province, the provincial reveiite totalled $27,570,000 and the provincial expenditure ran up to the same figure. In 1985, Kwangsl's hsien budget showed an income of 240,000, and this figure also represented the total hsien expenditure.
Kwangsi, {t is contended, therefore relied entirely on its transit tax on opium from Yunnan. and Kweichow provinces to meet lls huge armament budget, Tt "is. estimated that the opium tax totals from $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 a year. Apart from using $12,000,000 for armaments, Kwang, It is alleged, algo has saved from $3,000,000 to $8,000,000 a year for its private war chest, Following the Central Government's determination to suppress poppy-growing in Yun han and Kweichow, the opium export business of these {wo provinces suffered severely, and Kwangsi, which relied entirely'on the opium tax, for its armament budget, was faced with serious problem. its opium monopoly bureau and other tax offices have failed to raise sume lent funds for its military. budge
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.