HC Deb 22 April 1918 vol 105 cc716-7

The next tax to which I will call the attention of the Committee is a very small one. It is an addition to the duty on matches. That addition would not be made for the sake of revenue; the reason for it is a simple one, which I am sure will commend itself to the Committee. Matches, like nearly everything else, are under a Controller. The price is fixed—for those who can get them. It was fixed in regard to the box which is in most common use at ¾ d. The producers have satisfied the Controller that it was necessary for them to get a higher price. You can only make an addition of |d., and to make this addition without raising the duty would have given an excessive profit to the manufacturer. Therefore, by arrangement with the manufacturers, I am proposing an additional duty of 50 per cent., which will enable the matches to be sold at the same price that they would have been sold in any case, and the gain to the Revenue is £600,000 per annum.

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