56. Mr. F. HALLasked if the estimated revenue from Tea Duty for the present year is based on the assumption of an increased import of fourteen and a-half million pounds of tea; if the average annual increase for the past ten years has been about four and a-half million pounds; and what are the grounds for expecting such an exceptional increase in 1913–14?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEThe Estimate of the receipts from the Tea Duty is framed on the expectation that the actual clearances (not imports) will in 1913–14 exceed by fourteen million three hundred and four thousand pounds the clearances in the previous year. This forecast is based (as already explained in this House) on the facts that consumption in 1912–13 suffered from the effects of the coal strike, and that there was a considerable withholding of clearances at the end of the year. It is computed that these withholdings amounted to four million eight hundred thousand pounds, representing £100,000 of duty. The average increase of clearances in the last ten financial years has been about five and a-half million pounds, but there were increases of twenty-three and a-half million pounds in 1903–4, thirteen and a-half million pounds in 1907–8, eleven and a-half million pounds in 1908–9, twelve million pounds in 1910–11, and over eleven million pounds in 1911–12.
§ Sir J. D. REESWas there not a reduction of the Tea Duty in 1910?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGENot in 1910.
Mr. F. HALLCan the right hon. Gentleman tell the House where this tea is likely to come from; where we are likely to get this enormous increase in the revenue; and is it not a fact that there was no unusual holding back last year?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEThe hon. Member cannot have followed my answer.
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEIf he refers to my answer he will see that I am drawing a distinction between imports and clearances. The tea is there, and it is a question of clearances and not of imports.