HC Deb 26 October 1955 vol 545 cc227-8

These, then, are the measures which the Government propose to restore the balance of the economy. We must not under-estimate our achievement over the last four years. We have removed restrictions and controls and restored liberty of choice; we have opened markets, widened the channels of trade and moved nearer the freeing of payments. Now, if we show responsibility at home we shall prove ourselves worthy of the position of leadership in the Commonwealth and among the nations of Western Europe.

Moreover, the Committee may observe that this Government has always taken action in time and has looked forward. It is our conviction that by taking action of this sort in time, we can look forward not only to many years of successful government but to a continuance of our standard of living and to the happiness of our people if all combine in unity in carrying out this task.

1. Purchase Tax

Motion made, That as from the twenty-seventh day of October, nineteen hundred and fifty-five—

  1. (a) section nine of the Finance Act, 1952 (which provides for reducing or discharging purchase tax on certain wearing apparel, textiles and domestic furniture by making a deduction from wholesale value), shall be repealed;
  2. (b) subject to any order of the Treasury under section twenty-one of the Finance Act, 1948, Part I of the Eighth Schedule to that Act shall be amended as provided by the Table appended to this Resolution, but this paragraph—
    1. (i) shall not authorise the amendments in paragraphs 1 to 5 of that Table unless provision is made by any Act of the present Session relating to finance for the repeal of the said section nine of the Finance Act, 1952, at least so far as it applies to all descriptions of wearing apparel, textile articles, soft furnishings and bedding, or for its repeal to that extent subject to a saving for articles made wholly or partly of fur-skin, and
    2. (ii) shall not authorise the amendments in paragraph 6 of that Table unless provision is so made for the repeal of the said section nine at least so far as it applies to all descriptions of furniture;
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  3. (c) subject as aforesaid, in Part I of the said Eighth Schedule (with any amendments authorised by the foregoing provisions of this Resolution)—
    1. (i) each rate of 25 per cent. in any Group shall be increased to 30 per cent.,
    2. (ii) each rate of 50 per cent. in Group 11 or any following Group shall be increased to 60 per cent., and
    3. (iii) each rate of 75 per cent. in any Group shall be increased to 90 per cent.,
but this paragraph shall not authorise any increase under one of the foregoing subparagraphs which does not apply equally to all rates mentioned in that sub-paragraph; and in paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of the said section twenty-one of the Finance Act, 1948, the reference to the rates of tax provided for by the enactments relating to purchase tax shall include not only the rates provided for by this Resolution but also any other rate not exceeding the highest rate at which tax is for the time being chargeable in respect of goods of any class.

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