HC Deb 15 July 1946 vol 425 cc955-6
Mr. Glenvil Hall

I beg to move, in page 9, line 15, after "Subsection," to insert "at the basic rate."

I think it would be convenient, Mr. Speaker, if I dealt with this Amendment and the next two Amendments together. The first two are drafting Amendments, and the third one is necessary to provide that the alterations in tax made by the Amendments to the Third Schedule, which are to be moved later on, shall operate as from 22nd July next. The reason for choosing 22nd July as the operative date is that it is the first convenient date after the House has given some sort of approval to the changes which my right hon. Friend has agreed to in the various items coming under the Purchase Tax Schedule. Clearly, it would have been undesirable to have fixed a date before there was any Parliamentary sanction for the changes that are to be made, and if the date were made retrospective it would have led to difficulties, and there would have been claims for repayment. We hope the House will accept this compromise date, which is, on the whole, the best in the circumstances.

Amendment agreed to.

Further Amendments made:

In page 9, line 15, at the end, insert "second or."

In line 29, at the end, insert: Provided that to the extent that the provisions of Subsection (1) and the proviso to Subsection (2) of this Section relate to the classes of goods shown in Part I of the Third Schedule to this Act as becoming exempt on the twenty-second day of July, nineteen hundred and forty-six, and to the extent that the provisions of the said Subsection (2) relate to the classes of goods shown respectively in Parts II and III of the said Third Schedule as becoming on the said date chargeable at the reduced rate and the basic rate, those provisions shall be deemed to have come into operation on the said date, and references in this Subsection to the said tenth day of April shall in relation to those provisions and to that extent be construed as references to the said twenty-second day of July."—[Mr. Hall.]