HC Deb 22 December 1983 vol 51 cc550-1
5. Mr. Straw

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the estimated yield from all sources of taxation,

including excise and other duties, for 1983–84; and what was the comparable yield in 1978–79 revalued at 1983–84 prices.

The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. John Moore)

The estimated total of taxes, rates, and national insurance contributions is £117 billion in 1983–84; the yield in 1978–79 revalued to 1983–84 prices using the GDP deflator was £100 billion.

Mr. Straw

Are not those figures, which show that under this Government taxation has increased by £17 billion a year in real terms, a staggering indictment of the economic record of mismanagement by the Government who promised in 1979 and 1983 that taxes would be reduced? Do they not show also that, whatever so-called pledges the Chancellor may now be making, there is no prospect of getting taxation back to the 1979 level during the lifetime of this Government?

Mr. Moore

The figures show that, apart from facing such problems as the world recession, the Government, when they first came into office four and a half years ago, had to break the pattern of Socialist inflation and repay the absurd level of international external debt with which the Labour Government had saddled this country.