Volume 3 Chapter 141Welfare policy
Seveni put down the quill pen and pinched the bridge of her nose. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
When she opened her eyes, she looked around and confirmed that there was no one else in the City Lord’s office. She spread out her arms and forcefully stretched herself out.
Because of the comfort that came from stretching her body, Seveni felt a bit better. She couldn’t help sticking out her tongue and revealing an embarra.s.sed smile.
She had been strictly taught growing up in the royal family, so she always kept a perfect image in front of others. Even something as normal as stretching out was something that she could secretly do when no one was around.
Even so, although it made her feel like she was doing something bad, she still couldn’t stop.
But there was no other way, she was just too tired.
It was already the end of the year and as Banta City’s City Lord, there was a lot of work Seveni had to finish.
All the various things came together made her unable to sleep properly for close to a week, so she was now feeling incredibly tired.
But this was her first year as the City Lord and she was shouldering her royal father’s expectations, so naturally she couldn’t slack off at all.
To her, the best consolation was that during the work of these days, through the various reports, she had seen all the changes that had shocked and pleasantly surprised the people of Banta City.
According to the financial report from this year, so far, Banta City’s total tax revenue was five million seven hundred and thirty thousand gold coins.
Because this year wasn’t over yet, if they counted the final month’s tax revenue, then Banta City’s total tax revenue would be over six million gold coins!
Moreover, if it wasn’t for Count Stagg’s promoting agriculture policies, causing the tax revenue from the first half of the year to drop.
With the trend of the second half, Banta City’s total tax revenue could have even broken ten million gold coins!
Thinking of this number, Seveni felt her eyes fill with golden glow, making it really hard for her to believe this matter.
It had to be known, the Lampuri Kingdom’s total tax revenue last year was only two million gold coins.
Now just a single Banta City had taxes that could have broken the ten million mark.
Although according to the rules of the Royal Parliament, each city in the kingdom only needed to turn over a small portion to the kingdom as taxes, if every city in the Lampuri Kingdom was like Banta City with a tax revenue that broke the ten million mark, the Lampuri Kingdom’s finances would be completely different.
If the Lampuri Kingdom’s yearly taxes could break the ten million mark and wasn’t a pitiful one or two million like it normally was, the Lampuri Kingdom would be much stronger.
Since whether it was for an individual or a country, being rich was a very important matter.
Of course, although Banta City had high tax revenue, it also spent quite a bit of money.
Since Seveni became the City Lord, Banta City restarted the renovation projects that Count Stagg stopped. Banta City had turned into a large construction site in half a year, with all kinds of new roads and facilities all over.
The Banta City renovation project took a lot of money. In just half a year, they had spent over one and half million gold coins.
And according to estimates, in the next two to three years, they had to invest at least four million gold coins to finish the projects.
But since Banta City now had money, there were many things that couldn’t be thought of before since there was a lack of money were brought back up. Xu Yi proposed many things and now various welfare policies were being implemented for the citizens of Banta City.
These welfare policies also spent money, but Seveni still continued carrying them out. Even if Banta City’s tax revenue was very high, at the end of the year and after paying to the kingdom finances, Banta City was only left with one million and two hundred thousand gold coins.
Now that the new year was approaching, even if Seveni wasn’t willing, she had to spend some of this money on social expenses.
At the beginning of the next year, Seveni might not even have half a million gold coins left.
Thinking of this, Seveni shook her head with a bitter smile.
“It really is no money no worries, but there’s plenty of problems after you get money.”
She looked at the tax reports and Seveni thought for a bit before closing the report. She looked out the window and found that it was noon. It was rare good weather for a winter day like this and the sun was bright, lighting up everything outside.
After hesitating a bit, Seveni changed into a casual set of clothes and decided to take a walk.
When she pushed open the door, the workers of the City Lord Manor were all stunned.
Seeing Seveni’s casual attire, several workers looked at each other with smiles, but they didn’t say anything.
Her highness stayed in the office all day, so it was too tiring and she should go out for a walk.
Seveni gave them a smile before taking a scarf to cover the lower half of her face and then walking out of the City Lord Manor.
She had already heard the noise from inside the City Lord Manor, but once she came out onto the street, there were even more people and it was very lively.
Right now there are over three hundred thousand people in Banta City and not counting the people pa.s.sing, there might be over four hundred thousand people in and out of Banta City.
This number was a terrifying number for the Lampuri Kingdom because the most lively capital city of Anvilmar City only had less than two hundred thousand people.
Of course, with this population, there was a corresponding prosperity.
Banta City’s large and small streets were filled with people and as long as it was by the street, there were all kinds of stores. Looking at it, one would see all kinds of products that would dazzle anyone.
In these stores, there were many products that were worth tens of gold coins or up to a hundred gold coins that most people in Banta City couldn’t touch before.
But although these luxury goods were expensive, their sales were quite good in Banta City.
Because according to the City Lord Manor’s statistics, the average yearly income of a Banta City resident was already over three hundred gold coins.
If a family had several members, their yearly income would be even over a thousand gold coins.
With this high income, an item that was worth up to a hundred gold coins that were shown off by n.o.bles and merchants before had become normal products for Banta City citizens.
Seveni looked around the street and found that the clothes and ornaments that many young girls were wearing weren’t worse than those found in Anvilmar City.
Although many girls were limited by their tastes, their clothes didn’t seem that good to Seveni, at least it represented that they had decent economic abilities.
As the City Lord, Seveni was naturally glad to see this situation.
Walking through the streets, she turned into an alley and Seveni stood under a sign that said “City Lord Manor Stop”, patiently waiting for the next public transport Magic Car.
“Hey, Ronnie, you’re also waiting?” A fat middle aged man came up beside Seveni and waved to the thin man on Seveni’s right who was around the same age as him.
The thin man revealed a smile, “That’s right, I’m going to Falling Rain Valley. Shaq, what about you?”
The middle aged man named Shaq laughed, “I’m not going that far, I’m just going to the hospital outside Banta City.”
“What? You’re sick?” The thin man Ronnie asked in a surprised voice.
“How could that be? Look at how good I am, what part of me is sick?”
“Then why are you going to the hospital?” Ronnie was a bit confused.
“You don’t know? The «Banta Times» reported a while ago that the City Lord Manor is promoting the hospital insurance policy. As long as you are a citizen of Banta City, each person only needs to pay five gold coins a year and they can enjoy this insurance. The «Banta Times» said yesterday that the system is already in place and you have to go to the hospital outside the city to sign up, so I’m finding some time to go there.”
“Hospital insurance policy?” Ronnie knit his brows, “What is this thing? We even need to pay money?”
“What? You’re afraid of suffering a loss? Let me tell you, this thing is quite good. We only need to pay five gold coins a year and you can get a reduced rate next year. For example, if you ever become sick, you would need to spend ten gold coins to go to the hospital, but you can get a 70% discount with this health insurance, so you only spend three gold coins. How about it? Isn’t that cost effective?”
“Really?” Ronnie was pleasantly surprised, “There’s actually such a good thing? Then what if I don’t get sick all year?”
“Then you just paid for nothing if you didn’t get sick, you think that you can get that money back?”
“For nothing?” Ronnie’s joy faded and he said in a pained voice, “Then if I don’t get sick next year, I handed over five gold coins for nothing?”
“I say, you’re worried about this?” Shaq curled his lips, “It’s just five gold coins, are you even lacking that money now? You can enjoy benefits if you pay this price and if you don’t pay, you’ll really lose out when you need it.”
“That’s right……” Ronnie nodded, “Let me consider it…..Right, when is the deadline to apply for this?”
“It’s the end of the year, you have to consider quickly or you might not make it in time.” Shaq warned him.
“Alright, I will properly think about it.”