§ 1. Mr. Dickensasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will seek to introduce an excess payments tax to support the Trades Union Congress's voluntary incomes policy, details of which are in his possession.
§ The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Roy Jenkins)I am not sure exactly what form of tax my hon. Friend has in mind. There would be very great 1008 difficulties about recovering excessive wage and salary payments through the taxation of individual employers or employees.
§ Mr. DickensDoes my right hon. Friend realise that many of us on this side are totally opposed to the Government's proposed Prices and Incomes Bill because it is demonstrably unfair to organised labour? Second, does he realise that many of us want to see a prices and incomes policy, and we believe that the fiscal system is the only fair way to achieve it, by ensuring that incomes derived from any source are taxed in the way indicated in the Question?
§ Mr. JenkinsMy hon. Friend raised some rather wide issues at the beginning of his supplementary question. On the latter part, I am always willing to look at any new fiscal device, but I say to my hon. Friend again that there are difficulties in proceeding as he suggests.