§ 9.17 p.m.
§ Mr. Harold MacmillanI beg to move,
That the Sulphate of Ammonia (Charges) (No. 1) Order, 1940, made by the Treasury under Section 2 of the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, 1939, a copy of which was presented to this House on 10th July, be approved.155 Before the war sulphate of ammonia, whether produced from the products of gas-works or coke companies or from other home sources, was sold through the British Sulphate of Ammonia Federation. In that way a uniform delivery price was arranged, so that without regard to distance from the source of production a uniform delivery price was quoted at any railway station. Since the war that price has been fixed, not by the Federation, but by the Minister of Supply, and in fixing the price regard has been had to wages and so forth. This Order secures that the uniform delivery price shall continue. Owing to various circumstances which have arisen it may be necessary to send this material longer distances. Therefore, it is intended to retain the uniform delivery price, and by arrangement between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Supply the machinery laid down in this Order is for that purpose. An additional sum is also to be paid in order to cover certain reserves. We thus do something similar to what we did in the last Order. We determine the carriage by adding a fixed sum to be levied in accordance with the tonnage sent. In calculating the sum we had regard to freight and to what might be called a "contingency reserve." The only additional point I would like to make clear is that since the war the cost of the by-product part of the industry has risen very considerably. The cost of imported acid making material and other costs have risen to a greater extent in that part of the industry which is based upon the by-product than in that part which is based upon atmospheric nitrogen. The synthetic makers do not wish to make an additional profit out of the revised price and have agreed voluntarily to surrender any additional profit accruing to them. That extra profit will be put into the fund in order to reduce the price accordingly.
§
Resolved,
That the Sulphate of Ammonia (Charges) (No. 1) Order, 1940, made by the Treasury under Section 2 of the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, 1939, a copy of which was presented to this House on 10th July, be approved.