HC Deb 17 September 1931 vol 256 cc1153-4

Resolution reported, That it is expedient to amend the Law relating to the National Debt as follows:

  1. (a) by making provision that in the event of the five per cent. War Loan, 1929 to 1947, becoming repayable, holdings in that loan may, unless application is made for repayment in cash, be continued subject to a reduction in the rate of interest and modifications in the name and terms of repayment, and in the other conditions and incidents, of the said loan, and in that connection making provision—
    1. (i) for the issue of bonus stock and bonus bonds to form part of the said loan and the payment of cash bonuses;
    2. (ii) for enabling any expenses incurred in connection with the continuance or redemption of holdings in the said loan (including sums paid on account of any such cash bonus as aforesaid or on account of any interest which, by reason of the continuance or redemption of the said loan, becomes payable in any financial year instead of in the next following financial year) to be defrayed, if the Treasury so direct, out of the Consolidated Fund instead of out of the permanent annual charge for the National Debt;
    3. (iii) for enabling the Treasury to borrow, as if under Section one of the War Loan Act, 1919, to meet any such expenses as aforesaid;
    4. (iv) for other matters in connection with the continuance or redemption of holdings in the said loan;
  2. (b) by reducing to three hundred and twenty-two million pounds the permanent annual charge for the National Debt for each of the financial years ending respectively on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and thirty-two, and the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and thirty-three, and providing for the defraying of the whole or any part of the sums required in the said years for the purposes specified in sub-paragraphs (iv) and (v) of paragraph (b) of Subsection (4) of Section twenty-three of the Finance Act, 1928, out of money to be borrowed for the purpose as if under Section one of the War Loan Act, 1919, instead of out of the said permanent annual charge;
  3. (c) by making further provision for the issue by the Treasury of securities—
    1. (i) subject to the condition that Income Tax will not be deducted from the interest thereof;
    2. (ii) subject to the condition that in certain cases the capital and in certain cases the interest will be free from taxation:
  4. (d) by providing for the repayment through the post to holders outside the 1154 British Isles of principal moneys due to them on the redemption of Government stock."