§ 26. Mr. Prenticeasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the estimated yield in the current financial year for licensed-vehicle duty and fuel-oil duty paid by the passenger transport industry.
Mr. AmoryIt is £3 million from vehicle excise licence duty and £30 million from hydrocarbon oil duty.
§ Mr. PrenticeI do not expect the Chancellor to anticipate his Budget statement, but does he appreciate that there is a growing volume of opinion that these pernicious taxes on bus tickets ought to be swept away? Will he agree that the growing congestion on the roads in the rush hours and the increasing number of road casualties make it even more urgent that he should remove this taxation from the passenger industry, and will he bear these factors in mind as well as other arguments which have been used in previous years?
Mr. AmoryI will bear in mind the factors which the hon. Gentleman has mentioned. I agree with him about the seriousness of the two problems to which he has called my attention.