HC Deb 03 April 1963 vol 675 cc494-5

As the Committee is now receiving the Resolutions, I should like to mention a small change that I am making this year. In the past, what is known as the Incidental Charges Resolution has listed in more or less detail the proposals for tax concessions that might create an incidental charge. This practice has had the effect of ruling out of order further proposals not mentioned in the Resolution if they were judged to impose, in exceptional circumstances, an incidental charge.

The examination of Amendments to the Finance Bill to decide whether or not they imposed an incidental charge occupied a good deal of time, and as we all remember, would-be movers of Amendments and new Clauses have often felt frustrated by technicalities which had not been foreseen. This year, I am asking the Committee to approve an Incidental Charges Resolution that covers any provision designed in general to afford relief from taxation, and I hope that this change will be welcomed as a useful simplification of our procedures.

As I said at the beginning, the proposals I have laid before the Committee this afternoon are designed to achieve our purpose of expansion without inflation. They are designed to do the share of the Government in achieving the target of a 4 per cent. annual rate of growth. I have framed my proposals in a rather unusual form because I wished to put them forward as a coherent unit with each individual change finding its logical place in the whole picture. I hope that I have succeeded.

I end by impressing, once again, that Government policy alone cannot ensure success. There is need for a common effort led by Government, management and unions. I think that I can claim that today we are doing the Government's share. That has been my purpose.

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