§ MR. T. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)I beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will give instructions that, in the Accounts of Public Revenue, published at the end of each quarter of the financial year, the total amount of revenue from Death Duties shall be stated separately, instead of being included, as at present, with other duties under the one head of Stamps?
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Sir W. HARCOUKT, Derby)This would neither be convenient nor indeed possible. The Quarterly Returns are made on the expiring day of the quarter, when it is only possible to give the total exchequer receipts under the various principal heads, which require some time to analyse. The Returns can only be given in gross and cannot be distributed into their several items, any more than in the case of the Customs or the Excise.
§ MR. T. GIBSON BOWLES(1) I beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the payment to local authorities out of the Death Duties for the financial year 1894–5, amounting to £2,153,059, represents one and a-half per cent. (under Section 19 of the Finance Act, 1894) on the principal value of the personal property, which would previously have been subject to Probate, Inventory, and Account Duty, and represents the charge on a total principal value of £143,537,260; whether this total value corresponds with the total value of property previously charged with Probate Duty; and whether he can explain why the total value of personalty charged with duty, which in 1891–2 was £193,397,000, in 1892–3 £164,322,000, and in 1893–4 £162,866,000, has apparently so seriously diminished in 1894–5 as to be less by £50,000,000 than in 1891–2, less by £20,000,000 than in 1892–3, and less by £19,000,000 than in 1893–4?
§ MR. T. GIBSON BOWLES(2) I beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he can explain why the amount paid to Local Taxation Accounts out of Death Duties, which in 1891–2 was £2,793,668, in 1892–3 £2,409,187, and in 1893–4 £2,359,030, has fallen in 1894–5 to £2,153,059, or £640,609 below 1891–2 (the last preceding influenza year), and £206,971 below 1893–4; and whether he proposes to take any steps for making up to the local authorities this diminution in the amount payable to them out of the Death Duties?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERI must ask the hon. Member to postpone his questions, as I have not yet the information upon which to answer him. I could not make any statement involving an analysis of the figures until some time after the end of the financial half-year.
§ MR. T. GIBSON BOWLESIs it not the fact that the total Death Duties are kept entirely distinct and separate from the total general stamps and in a separate office, and, therefore, is it not perfectly easy to give the figures at the end of the quarter?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERI must take the information which I have from the Department, and they say that the figures are in a lump, and that the items cannot be separated.
§ MR. T. GIBSON BOWLESDoes not the right hon. Gentleman see that the information I have is derived entirely from the public accounts? Cannot he follow me in the inferences which I have drawn from that information?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERIf the hon. Member has the information already he does not want it from me. Until I make the Fnancial Statement I shall not be in a position to give it.