§ I have, however, one further proposal to make. There are certain revenue duties which are commonly known comprehensively as the breakfast table duties. They have a long history, but have now lost much of their revenue significance, and retain inherited complexities which, I am told, are out of all proportion to the revenue. Some of these are disclosed in the Financial Statement. The revenue element of the duty on tea, as the right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the Opposition will remember, was removed in 1949.
§ I now propose to do the same for sugar, coffee and cocoa. This means that the surviving duties will apply to foreign commodities at reduced levels and will only exist to preserve preferential and protective margins. In general, preferential rates become nil and the Excise duties on sugar, glucose and saccharin are abolished. When so 993 reduced, the duties are patently protective in character and they will all be transferred, at an appropriate time after the passing of the Finance Act, to the formal status of protective duties under the Import Duties Act. In no way does it disturb the existing arrangements, both national and international, for the marketing of sugar. This change will secure substantial savings in the work of traders, including export traders, no less than in the work of the Customs, and will carry significantly further the process of simplifying the Customs and Excise duties.
§ These changes, which come into effect from midnight tonight, will reduce my revenue this year by £15½ million compared to the figure it would have been, including the surchage for the whole year. As a result, it will be possible for a reduction of ½d. a lb. to be made in the price of sugar. This will not only be of help to the housewife; it will also go some way to ease the burden on manufacturers of some of the things I am bringing into Purchase Tax for the first time. Apart from sugar, there will be some small benefit for cocoa and coffee