§ CAPTAIN SINCLAIR (Forfar)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether, in addition to the new countervailing duties, German and Austrian sugar will still be subject to the general 5 per cent. impost duty; and what relation, at present prices, this duty bears to German and Austrian bounties?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON, Middlesex, Ealing)All sugar imported into India since 1894 has paid 5 per cent. ad valorem duty; and bounty-fed sugar will not, under the recent Act, become free from this duty. In reply to the second part of the honourable Member's Question, I can only give a very rough estimate; but the bounties on sugar imported into India from Austria and Germany may be taken on the average to be one-eighth of the value of the sugar; and, on this assumption, the 5 per cent. ad valorem duty would be about five-thirteenths of the amount of the bounty.