HC Deb 04 February 1964 vol 688 cc962-4
21. Mr. Doig

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will now reduce the fuel tax for public service buses to the same amount as for other industries and diesel trains, namely twopence per gallon.

22. Mr. Frank Allaun

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if, in view of the emphasis laid in the Buchanan Report on making public transport relatively cheap, he will consider, when preparing his Budget, reducing the 300 per cent. tax on bus fuel oil.

35. Sir C. Osborne

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give favourable consideration to the request for a reduction of the 300 per cent. tax on bus fuel oil from the Grimsby and Cleethorpes Joint Transport Committee, which is paying over £50,000 a year in tax and, though losing thousands of pounds every year, is faced with another claim for wage increases; and if he will make a statement on the letter sent to him by the hon. Member for Louth from the Committee.

Mr. Maudling

I have received a number of representations about the duty on fuel oil used in buses and I am considering them carefully, but I cannot anticipate my Budget.

Mr. Doig

Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Minister of Transport and the Buchanan Report both stress the vital necessity of encouraging more people to use public transport? Is he not also aware that the Underground has now become dangerously over-crowded? Is he not further aware that this heavy tax does not help the process of encouraging people to use public transport, which is much more economical in the use of road space than private cars?

Mr. Maudling

These are arguments which are advanced by those who wish to see this tax reduced, but the hon. Gentleman will not expect me to comment on their validity or otherwise at this time.

Mr. Allaun

While we do not expect the right hon. Gentleman to comment on their validity, does not he think that 2s. 6d. a gallon is a really extortionate and unreasonable tax? Does not he also agree that a bus which can carry 60 passengers occupies perhaps only twice as much space as a private car and that the increase in the number of private cars is slowly bringing traffic to a halt in our main cities?

Mr. Maudling

The hon. Gentleman began by saying that he would not expect me to comment on the validity of these arguments and then proceeded to ask me whether I did not think they were right.

Sir C. Osborne

Is my right hon. Friend aware that £50,000 is a lot of money to take in this way from relatively small communities like Grimsby and Cleethorpes? Does not he agree that, since new housing estates are being built outside the centres of these places, and mostly young married people are going to live there, the extra cost entailed in travelling to the shops is an unreasonable burden? Will he look at this question from that point of view?

Mr. Maudling

I cannot say more than that these are really serious arguments advanced by people on a serious basis and that I will consider them. But I cannot go further than that at the moment.

Mr. Hilton

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that people in the countryside would welcome the reduction of this tax in the rural areas, where public transport is so limited and where, by the time the Beeching proposals are implemented, the situation will be much worse? While I appreciate that he cannot tell us in advance what his Budget will contain, will he bear the rural people in mind?

Mr. Maudling

I will certainly bear them in mind, but I cannot say what the result will be.