HC Deb 01 August 1963 vol 682 cc620-1
4. Mr. Ridley

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the yield of the speculative gains tax during the last financial year.

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

No assessments were made in 1962–63 on speculative gains arising in that year, since the information required could not be available until taxpayers' returns of income of that year were received, and these returns could not be made until the end of the year and are still coming in. The yield is unlikely to be large.

Mr. Ridley

Does not my right hon. Friend agree that it is extremely difficult to obtain a view on whether this is a good or a bad tax if we do not know what it yields? Will he give us the figures when he knows what the yield for the first year is, so that we can make up our minds on this point?

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

I think there is a great deal in what my hon. Friend says, and, of course, the figures will be available when they have come in.

Mr. Callaghan

As this tax is unlikely to yield any revenue, and as it has not stopped any of the transactions it was supposed to stop but merely deferred them by a matter of a week or two, can the Chief Secretary tell us what its purpose is, except to act as a subterfuge in order to persuade the unions that the Government are trying to tackle the problem?

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

That question is, of course, based on two wholly unwarranted hypotheses and not unnaturally leads the hon. Member to the wrong conclusion.