HC Deb 19 March 1903 vol 119 cc1227-8
MR. LOUGH

I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will state the total number of articles which have been made liable to Customs Duties under the Sugar Tax and the Corn Tax respectively, the number of prosecutions for smuggling any of these articles initiated by the Government, and the amount of penalties that have been recovered.

*MR. RITCHIE

The articles liable to the Corn and Sugar Duties are those specified in the Finance Acts, together with such other goods as may be found to contain any of these dutiable articles as a part or ingredient, as provided in sub-section 1 of section 7 of the Finance Act, 1901. There have been no prosecutions by the Customs for smuggling goods liable to the Sugar and Corn Duties, except in respect of saccharin. Five such cases have been carried to completion, resulting in the recovery in two instances of mitigated penalties of £125 and £25 respectively. Of the remaining three cases one defendant is still in prison pending payment, and in the other two the defendants have been released after undergoing terms of imprisonment. In addition, there are five cases in which proceedings have not yet been brought to a conclusion.

MR. LOUGH

The right hon. Gentleman has not given me the number of articles liable under each head. That is the object of my Question.

*MR. RITCHIE

There is no fixed number. There is a specified class, and any goods which come in and which the Customs authorities think are dutiable are open to a charge of duty.

MR. LOUGH

Is there no certainty, then, about an article beforehand, and may it not be free to-day and liable to duty tomorrow?

*MR. RITCHIE

No; the same article which is not liable to-day will not be liable to-morrow, but any article which turns out to have any ingredient in it which is taxable will be taxed.

MR. JOHN ELLIS (Nottinghamshire, Rushcliffe)

The right hon. Gentleman's predecessor gave us a schedule of the list of articles taxable under these Acts. Are we to understand that the schedule has-been increased?

MR. RITCHIE

No, Sir; if my hon. friend will refer to the schedule he will see that it is a statement of classes only. There may be sub-divisions of the classes according to circumstances.