_Finance._--No itemized returns of receipts and expenditures are ever
published, and the estimates presented to congress by the cabinet
ministers furnish the only source from which information can be drawn.
The expenditures are not large, and taxation is not considered heavy.
The estimated revenues and expenditures for 1904 and 1905 at 21 pence
per boliviano, were as follows: 1904, revenue L632,773:15s., expenditure
L748,571:10s.; 1905, revenue L693,763:17:6, expenditure L828,937:19:9.
The revenues are derived principally from duties and fees on imports,
excise taxes on spirits, wines, tobacco and sugar, general, mining
taxes and export duties on minerals (except silver), export duties on
rubber and coca, taxes on the profits of stock companies, fees for
licences and patents, stamp taxes, and postal and telegraph revenues.
Nominally, the import duties are moderate, so much so that Bolivia is
sometimes called a "free-trade country," but this is a misnomer, for in
addition to the schedule rates of 10 to 40% _ad valorem_ on imports,
there are a consular fee of 1-1/2% for the registration of invoices
exceeding 200 bolivianos, a consumption tax of 10 centavos per quintal
(46 kilogrammes), fees for viseing certificates to accompany merchandise
in transit, special "octroi" taxes on certain kinds of merchandise
controlled by monopolies (spirits, tobacco, &c.), and the import and
consumption taxes levied by the departments and municipalities. The
expenditures are chiefly for official salaries, subsidies, public works,
church and mission support, justice, public instruction, military
expenses, and interest on the public debt. The appropriations for 1905
were as follows: war, 2,081,119 bolivianos; finance and industry,
1,462,259; government and fomento, 2,021,428; justice and public
instruction, 1,878,941.
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