The cost of collecting the customs revenues for the last fiscal year was
2.44 per cent; for the year 1885 it was 3.77 per cent.
The excess of internal-revenue taxes collected during the last fiscal
year over those collected for the year ended June 30, 1887, was
$5,489,174.26, and the cost of collecting this revenue decreased from
3.4 per cent in 1887 to less than 3.2 per cent for the last year. The
tax collected on oleomargarine was $723,948.04 for the year ending June
30, 1887, and $864,139.88 for the following year.
The requirements of the sinking-fund act have been met for the year
ended June 30, 1888, and for the current year also, by the purchase of
bonds. After complying with this law as positively required, and bonds
sufficient for that purpose had been bought at a premium, it was not
deemed prudent to further expend the surplus in such purchases until
the authority to do so should be more explicit. A resolution, however,
having been passed by both Houses of Congress removing all doubt as to
Executive authority, daily purchases of bonds were commenced on the 23d
day of April, 1888, and have continued until the present time. By this
plan bonds of the Government not yet due have been purchased up to and
including the 30th day of November, 1888, amounting to $94,700,400, the
premium paid thereon amounting to $17,508,613.08.
The premium added to the principal of these bonds represents an
investment yielding about 2 per cent interest for the time they still
had to run, and the saving to the Government represented by the
difference between the amount of interest at 2 per cent upon the sum
paid for principal and premium and what it would have paid for interest
at the rate specified in the bonds if they had run to their maturity is
about $27,165,000.
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