HC Deb 23 October 1945 vol 414 c1901

The Committee will have observed that all the principal taxation changes which I have mentioned so far will not come into force until next year. But there is one relief which I propose should take effect forthwith, and this lies in the field of the Purchase Tax. I propose to abolish the Purchase Tax completely over a certain range of articles of special importance in connection with the housing programme. I propose to free from the tax a list of articles—it is not a long list in the aggregate—which perhaps I might read to the Committee: coal and coke stoves, grates and fireplaces; gas and electric tires; radiators and convectors; oil heaters; coal and coke ranges; gas, electric and oil stoves; boiling rings, grillers and hot plates; independent domestic boilers; geysers, immersion heaters and similar water heaters; wash boilers and coppers, and finally, for summer time, refrigerators. All these articles are now taxed at 33⅓ per cent, of their wholesale value. [Interruption.] Did some hon. Member mention furniture? I must carry my hon. Friend's memory back to the brave days of the Coalition Government, when I was President of the Board of Trade and when the right hon. Gentleman the Member for the Scottish Universities (J. Anderson) was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and we arranged between us to clear utility furniture from the Purchase Tax altogether. No other furniture may legally be made even now. Therefore, there is no need for me to intervene on furniture in this connection. [An Hon. Member: "There is no furniture."] There is just a little. In regard to the list of articles which I enumerated, I shall propose a Resolution to enable the new exemption to come into operation, as regards goods delivered by registered traders, from to-morrow. I estimate that this abatement of the Purchase Tax will entail a loss of about £1,000,000 in the current financial year and £10,000,000 in 1946–47. All these articles are price controlled goods under the Goods and Services (Price Control) Acts and the remission of tax will, therefore, be passed on to the purchaser, with legal sanction behind it.