§ Dr. GilbertI beg to move Amendment No. 77, in page 38, line 38, leave out 'except that such provisions' and insert:
'(2) As from 1st August 1974 (but without prejudice to their operation as regards the period before that date) the said provisions, so far as they increase any stamp duty,'.
§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Mr. George Thomas)With this we are to take Government Amendments Nos. 78 and 58.
§ Dr. GilbertThis group of amendments is attached to amendments which were moved in Standing Committee by the right hon. Member for Carshalton (Mr. Carr) and his hon. Friends and which were written into the Bill after a Division. The effect of the amendments was to relieve from the doubling of the stamp duty proposed by the Budget any conveyance, transfer or letting made to a charity.
These Government amendments seek to tidy up certain points of detail in the right hon. Gentleman's amendment. They in no way seek to attack its principle. I make it clear that they have three provisions. The first is restrictive in the sense that they provide that the more favourable régime for charities should start from 1st August 1974, instead of from 1st May 1974, for administrative reasons. I hope that hon. Members opposite will accept that this is not just a piece of petty Treasury meanness. It is for the convenience of the charities themselves, and we are talking of only three months loss of relief.
The amendments also include provision for adjudication. More importantly, they provide that charities will get the benefits 1243 of any reductions in the Bill. The inclusion of the right hon. Gentleman's amendment made some charities worse off than otherwise they would have been. The effect of these amendments is to protect them from this unfortunate and obviously totally unintended consequence.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§
Amendment made: No. 78, in page 38, line 43, at end insert:
'Provided that no instrument not stamped with the duty to which it would apart from this subsection be liable shall be treated as duly stamped by virtue of this subsection unless it has in accordance with the provisions of section 12 of the Stamp Act 1891 been stamped with a particular stamp denoting that it is duly stamped.
(3) In any case where by virtue of the preceding subsection any provisions of Schedule 11 to this Act do not apply, such of the repeals contained in Parts III and IV of Schedule 14 to this Act as are consequential on the provisions in question shall also not apply.'—[Dr. Gilbert.]