§ 3. Miss Burtonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is aware that some firms are not passing on to their customers reductions in Purchase Tax made in the Budget; and if he will make a statement on this position with regard to current stocks of merchandise and with regard to stocks not yet held.
§ Mr. SimonIt is common knowledge that many firms decided to reduce the prices of existing stocks immediately after the Budget. As to goods to which the Budget reductions apply, I would refer the hon. Member to Answers given by my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade to Questions on 24th April.
§ Miss BurtonThat did not get us anywhere. Is the Financial Secretary aware that Customs and Excise men said that the reductions in Purchase Tax should mean a reduction to customers of 1½d. in the shilling on cosmetics? Is he further aware that big firms such as Goya and Yardley actually put up their prices? Does he not agree that such firms should be named in this House? Am I not right in assuming that the cosmetics industry is a flourishing one financially?
§ Mr. SimonI am not aware of any official statement made on behalf of the Customs and Excise. The other matters not only lie outside the sphere of my personal experience but within the province of my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade.
Mrs. SlaterIs the hon. and learned Gentleman not aware that, as I said last week, this is a betrayal of the purpose of the Purchase Tax reduction? In the line of cosmetics, only one cosmetics firm has not put up its prices. What has happened is that the firms have put up their cost price so that the retailer gets no more profit but the manufacturer does, and the consumer, of course, is the person who always has to suffer in the long run. Cannot the hon. and learned Gentleman at least ask his right hon. Friend to make representations to these people who defeat the purpose of the Budget?
§ Mr. SimonAs I indicated, and as the hon. Lady recognises, these are matters for my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade, and no doubt his attention will be drawn to the matter. In any case, I believe that the hon. Lady the Member for Coatbridge and Airdrie (Mrs. Mann) is shortly going on a shopping expedition with my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade.