DRIED FRUIT. (Hansard, 29 September 1915)

§ The FINANCIAL SECRETARY to the TREASURY (Mr. Montagu)
I beg to move to leave out the words

£ s. d.

Currants, the cwt. 0 1 0

872 I ask the House to accept this Amendment not for any reason connected with the merits of the tax. Since the Resolution was taken representations have been made to us that in 1890 a Convention was signed with the Greek Government, undertaking that without a year's notice we would not ask Parliament to increase the duty on currants. That Convention was subsequently ratified, and has never been repudiated. We have not given any notice to the Greek Government, therefore we are bound by our Treaty obligations to withdraw this part of the Resolution. It might possibly have been expected that this Convention would have been in mind when the Resolution was drawn, but owing to the heavy pressure on the Department at present the matter escaped observation.

Mr. DUNDAS WHITE
When my right hon. Friend rose, I hoped that he was going to say that the Government proposed to withdraw this Resolution altogether.

§ Mr. SPEAKER
The hon. Member must confine himself to the Amendment.

§ Sir W. ESSEX
Will the right hon. Gentleman tells us what difference this Amendment will make to the Treasury estimate of the total yield of this tax?

§ Mr. MONTAGU
£60,000.

§ Sir W. ESSEX
Out of how much?

§ Mr. MONTAGU
£180,000.

§ Sir W. ESSEX
That lends point to the observation of my hon. Friend (Mr. Dundas White). Why not drop the Resolution altogether?

§ Mr. BENTHAM
The statement of the Financial Secretary is perfectly correct as to there having been an agreement with the Greek Government not to put any fresh duty on currants without giving a year's notice. But there is a good deal to be said in regard to other clauses of that agreement. I mention this, because it is very probable that currants will be extremely dear this year, and I hope the Government will be able to prevail on the Greek Government to allow the exporters of currants to send out their full quantity, instead of less than 35 per cent., as they have done for several years.

Mr. DUNDAS WHITE
I regret that the Government have seen fit to make this heavy addition to a petty tax on the food of the people. The total amount that would have been raised by the Resolution was £180,000. I understand that by the Amendment just made one-third of that sum has gone. I suggest that the remaining two-thirds should go also. The sum involved is not large, but the tax itself is a very undesirable one. It is a tax upon most wholesome articles of food, and articles that could be most readily purchased by the poor during the winter. Figs, raisins, and prunes are just the classes of fruit the production of which we ought to encourage, in order that the people might get them as cheaply as possible. They are the very things we ought not to tax. It seems curious that these articles have been selected. They have been on the list of dutiable articles for a long time. If that list had been prepared in modern times, and it had been decided to tax dried and preserved fruits, the tax would have extended not only to dried fruits, but also to tinned and canned fruits and those other fruits with which we are now familiar. I do not want those fruits taxed; far from it; but the very same reasons which can be urged against the taxation of those articles are equally applicable against the taxation of dried fruits. When we are considering the raising of something like £100,000,000 additional, it seems rather ridiculous to increase this somewhat mean tax so as to bring in an extra £120,000. It will only bring in that amount for the State, but it will probably cost the taxpayers a good deal more in the way of extra price. That is one of the objections to all these duties, particularly these petty duties on food. The proposed tax on figs, prunes, raisins, and various other dried fruits, is to be 3s. 6d. per cwt. That works out at about one-third of a penny per pound. I think the exact figure is. 375d. As we have no coin corresponding to that, the price is bound to rise by at least a halfpenny, so that the consumer will have to pay considerably more than the Exchequer will receive. I hope the Government will yet reconsider whether, having withdrawn a part of the proposal representing one-third of the revenue to be derived from the tax, it would not be well to abandon the tax altogether.

Mr. DENNISS
I wish to call the Chancellor of the Exchequer's attention to a matter of pressing and urgent importance 874 in regard to one of these duties, namely, the duty upon headgear.

§ Mr. SPEAKER
This Resolution deals only with dried fruit.

	£	s.	d.
Currants, the cwt.	0	1	0
Figs and fig cake, plums (commonly called French plums and prunelloes), prunes, all other dried or preserved plums, and raisins, the cwt.	0	3	6