§ 3.55 P.m.
§ The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Glenvil Hall)I beg to move in page 3, line 13, at the end, to insert:
and, where the tax becomes due on or after the ninth day of December, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, shall not affect—The effect of this Amendment is that wireless and battery accumulators, which under a Budget Resolution of this Bill as it stands would fall to pay Purchase Tax at the rate of 50 per cent., will revert to the old rate of 33⅓ per cent. I should in all fairness to the House point out that this change cannot be dated to 13th November, but will run as from 8th of 803 this month. In the interregnum any batteries or accumulators disposed of by retailers will, I am sorry to say, have to pay 50 per cent.
- (a)electric dry batteries; or
- (b)accumulators, being accumulators suitable for use with wireless receiving sets of the domestic or portable type."
The House will remember that on the Committee stage representations were made to my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer from every quarter of the Committee that this tax should not be raised with the others, on the ground that, particularly in rural areas, there were many people upon whom the tax would bear very hardly. The right hon. Member for West Bristol (Mr. Stanley) said that if my right hon. and learned Friend met the House in this matter it would be the last demand that they would make under this Clause of the Bill. My right hon. and learned Friend undertook to look at it without making any comments or commitment, and I am delighted to think that he has agreed to make this change. The cost will be about £1 million in a full year.
§ Mr. Oliver Stanley (Bristol, West)We are very grateful to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for having met this point, which was put to him from all sides of the Committee and with particular force from those who represent agricultural districts. We quite understand that the complexity of the case prevents the dating back, and we are prepared to put up with the small hardship which may be incurred by some because of that. Normally I should have thought it unnecessary to say any more or to add any further embellishment or embroidery, but the Chancellor of the Exchequer has given us to understand that future concessions are to be determined not so much on the merits of each case as on the flattery which the Government receive. In fact, not guns but butter has got to be the weapon of Members in the future.
So in order to get the matter straight on the record, I should like to declare that the Chancellor of the Exchequer in accepting this Amendment has shown courage, wisdom and humanity, all the qualities of statesmanship. I should like further to say that the learned Solicitor-General, when he gave some strong reasons for resisting this Amendment, showed the same courage, the same wisdom and the same humanity, in fact, the same qualities of statesmanship. In order that there may be no ill feeling I should 804 like to add that we are all certain that had the occasion demanded it, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury would have shown the same courage, the same wisdom and the same humanity—the same qualities of statesmanship—either in accepting or rejecting the Amendment as the case might be.
§ 4.0 p.m.
§ Mr. Douglas Marshall (Bodmin)I take this opportunity of thanking the Chancellor for putting this Amendment on the Paper. At the same time, I would once more direct his attention to the fact that I made the plea for removal of tax on these dry batteries on the first main Budget that came in at the beginning of the year. In making his statement during the Committee stage, the Chancellor said that between now and next year, he would review many matters with regard to Purchase Tax. I sincerely trust that, having regard to the shortage of amenities in the countryside, he will give his attention to the complete removal of the application of this tax to these batteries. I thank him for the consideration which he has already given to the matter.
§ Amendment agreed to.