§ 40. Dr. Kingasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the approximate yield of Purchase Tax on musical instruments for the latest available year.
§ Mr. PowellExcluding gramophones, radio-gramophones, record-players, and records, the yield from musical instruments in the calendar year 1956 was nearly £1 million.
§ Dr. KingAgainst that pitifully small sum will the Minister ask his right hon. Friend to consider, when thinking about repealing this tax, that it is a disincentive to real as distinct from recorded music, and that instrumentalists are the only professional men in the country who have to pay tax on the instruments by which they earn their living? Is he aware that, whereas every other country subsidises this dollar-earning industry, we are taxing it?
§ Mr. PowellI do not regard £1 million as a pitifully small sum, but my right hon. Friend has noted the point made by the hon. Member.