§ MR. T. M. HEALY (Louth, N.)To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether there is any good reason for restricting the benefit conferred by Section 10 of last year's Finance Act to loan capital merely; whether the hardship which that section was intended to remedy equally exists in the case of the consolidation of share capital; and whether he will consider the propriety of extending the benefit of the section to share capital also.
(Answered by Mr. Asquith.) The case referred to is presumably that in which loan capital is issued for the purpose, of the conversion of existing share capital. I cannot agree that in such a case any hardship arises through a charge for loan capital duty being made at 2s. 6d., not 6d. per cent. This duty is practically in substitution for the stamp duty which would be payable on a mortgage for the same purpose, which duty in the case in question would be at 2s. 6d., not 6d. per cent.