§ MR. LOUGH (Islington, W.)I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, seeing that sugar refineries have been placed in bond and that duty is actually paid on the quantity of sugar refined as it is delivered from the factories, he can see his way to abolish the method of collecting the sugar tax in accordance with the polariscopic scale imposed in the Budget of 1901.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN,) Worcestershire, E.The scale of sugar duties imposed by the Finance Act, 1901, is applicable to sugars delivered from British refineries as well as to sugars which are imported and cleared for home consumption without passing through a refinery in this country. All sugar delivered from a refinery is not assessable at the highest rate of 4s. 2d. the cwt. as the Question seems to imply, but considerable quantities are delivered at the various lower rates in the scale referred 748 to. I am not prepared to propose any alteration in the existing system of collection.