§ Mr. JOYNSON-HICKSasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that, as a means of reducing the balance available for the Sinking Fund on 31st March last, the Secretary to the Board of Inland Revenue made provisional repayments of claims for the return of Income Tax, notwithstanding that the examination of such claims had not been fully completed; and whether it is the usual practice of the Government to pay away the country's money without full and adequate examination of the claims?
§ Mr. ILLINGWORTH (replying in the absence of Mr. Hobhouse)I am informed that claims for repayment are sometimes granted before the full examination when there is a primâ facie case. In that event the full examination is made afterwards when the work in the claims branch is lighter. The practice was adopted by the 16 Department on the recommendation of the Departmental Committee on Income Tax in 1904, which was presided over by the late Right Hon. C. T. Ritchie.