LICENSED TRADE (STATE MANAGEMENT)

HC Deb 02 March 1944 vol 397 cc1550-1

13. Sir Robert Young

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department the nature of the debts and the businesses of the sundry debtors owing £12,886 as shown in the published accounts for the year ended 31st March, 1943, relative to the Carlisle area of the State management districts under his control.

The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Herbert Morrison)

Upwards of 40 per cent. of the item of £12,886 for sundry debtors in the statement of assets and liabilities as at 31st March, 1943, for the Carlisle State Management District is in respect of supplies of beer from the Carlisle Brewery to the Gretna state management district, the account for which is rendered quarterly: about 43 per cent. of the amount was due from trade customers, such as licensed tenants, clubs, Service messes and canteens, who are generally allowed one month's credit. The balance was in respect of rents accruing due, and the amounts owing by individual customers at hotels and customers with current accounts for wines and spirits.

STATE MANAGEMENT DISTRICTS.
—	Carlisle	Gretna	Cromarty Firth	All Districts
	£	£	£	£	£	£	£	£
1 Accumulated Profits to 31st March, 1942.	2,011,766		97,856		221,887		2,331,509
2. Profit for year ended 31st March, 1943.	190,604		11,772		27,963		230,339
Total Profits		2,202,370		109,628		249,850		2,561,848
3. Cash transmitted to Exchequer up to 31st March, 1942.	1,748,451		90,343		192,698		2,031,492
4. Cash transmitted to Exchequer for year ended 31st March, 1943.	210,029		25,539		40,608		276,176
Total cash transmitted to Exchequer.		1,958,480		115,882		233,306		2,307,668
5. Balance of accumulated Profits retained in Undertaking.		243,890		6,254		16,544		254,180
Taking the three undertakings as a whole, the accumulated profits exceed the cash remitted to the Exchequer up to 31st March, 1943, by £254,180 and that amount appears in the Statement of Assets and Liabilities as at that date under the head IV PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT—Balance of accumulated Profits retained in Undertaking.
In the Gretna State Management District, cash to the amount of £6,254 has been remitted to the Exchequer in excess of the accumulated profits. This position has arisen owing on the one hand to the curtailment during the war of capital expenditure on the improvement of hotels and public houses and on the other hand to the reduction of profits by the writing-down of pastimprovements which have ceased to be of capital value and by the provision of reserves for improvements, repairs and replacements which cannot be effected during the war.
Cash transmitted to the Exchequer in excess of accumulated profits will be available after the war for expenditure on capital assets without increasing the liability to the Exchequer in respect of retained profits.