Annual report on Sierra Leone / Colonial Office.

  • Great Britain. Colonial Office.
Date:
[1958]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Sierra Leone / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/146 (page 25)
    Customs Duties Customs duty is payable on most imported goods and on ten domestic exports. Import duties are collected either on an ad valorem or a specific basis and a preference, which in most cases varies from two-and-a- half to ten per cent less than the general rate, is granted on goods from the scheduled territories. The largest import revenue is collected on tobacco (manufactured and unmanufactured), drink, textiles, petroleum products, machinery and transport equipment. Export duties on a specific basis are collected on coffee, ginger, kola nuts, palm kernels and piassava and on an ad valorem basis on benniseed, cocoa, alluvial diamonds, groundnuts and palm oil. Diamonds yielded the most export revenue in 1958 with £241,304; palm kernels came next with £218,458. The figures for 1957 were £251,495 and £211,835 respectively. Income and Poll Tax Income tax was chargeable in 1958-59 at graduated rates (begin¬ ning at 6d. in the pound) on individuals and at a flat rate (9s. in the pound) on companies. Individuals were granted personal allowances and other deductions before the graduated rates began to be applied. An unmarried man was granted £300, a married man £500. Children’s allowances were granted at rates between £50 and £100 per child (up to a maximum of £400) according to where the child was maintained and whether costs of education were incurred. Dependent relatives’ allowance was also granted. Allowance was granted for life assurance and similar provision, subject to a generous maximum. In addition, contributions to approved pension and provident funds and expendi¬ ture incurred on passages were allowed, subject to conditions, as deductions in arriving at income. Arrangements have been concluded with the United Kingdom and certain other Commonwealth and foreign countries for the avoidance of double taxation. Broadly, they provide that tax payable on income from sources within one territory shall be allowed as a credit against tax chargeable on the same income in the other territory. Pensions and certain other forms of income are taxable in only one territory and are exempt in the other. Poll tax at £4 a year, or £2 a half-year, was payable for the year 1958, subject to certain exemptions, by non-natives who resided in Sierra Leone for more than three months. Minors and married women living with their husbands were among the persons exempted. Poll tax was allowed as a set-off against income tax that might have been payable. The accompanying table illustrates the incidence of income tax on individuals: