HC Deb 11 August 1882 vol 273 cc1525-6
MR. BUXTON

asked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, With reference to a statement made by him, that— The increase in the Duty on Third Class Passengers from £70,322 in 1873 to £333,032 in 1880, is largely due to an immense increase in the number of Third Class Passengers; and to a Return made by the Board of Trade on the 28th of last June (Parliamentary Paper, No. 254) stating that the amount of Third Class Passenger Fares increased from £11,238,283 in 1873 to £14,333,271 in 1880, while the Passenger Duty on Third Class Fares increased from £74,097 in 1873 to £339,025 in 1880; and, seeing that this increase in the amount of Third Class Fares accounts only for an increase of Passenger Duty from £74,097 in 1873 to £94,503 in 1880, being an increase of only £20,406, whether he will be so good as to explain to the House to what circumstances they are to attribute the further increase in the Duty on Third Class Fares of £244,522?

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. GLADSTONE)

I believe that the apparent discrepancy between the augmentation in the railway duty as compared with the augmentation in the number of third class passengers is to be explained by two causes. In the first place, the Railway Companies have made great changes in their arrangements, by which a much larger number of persons are induced to travel in third class carriages in trains which do not comply altogether with the Cheap Trains Act, and which, therefore, do not obtain a remission of duty. The other cause is that there have been legal decisions obtained from time to time by the Board of Revenue since 1873, which establish a liability to pay duty in the case of trains which formerly claimed to be exempt.