§ 12. Mr. Iremongerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he proposes to prepare and present his Budget on the lines of Command Paper No. 2014 of 1963, The Reform of the Exchequer Accounts.
§ Mr. MaudlingMy intention is that the Financial Statement this year should be in the same form as in previous years. But I hope to indicate in the course of my Budget statement the lines on which I think we can best make further progress in revising the form of the Exchequer Accounts and dealing with related matters.
§ Mr. IremongerI thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. Will he try to bring out this year the financing requirement, which is, from the economic point of view, the only vital piece of information that we need to know?
§ Mr. MaudlingI will certainly try to do that. This is not an easy problem to solve. The difficulty is to give the House as guardian of the public purse the necessary financial information and at the same time to give the House and the public the necessary economic picture.
§ Mr. CallaghanIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that under the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act he must introduce his Budget by 4th May? May we take it that that is his intention?
§ Mr. MaudlingThat seems to me to arise on a later Question.