THE EARL OF MANSFIELDasked Her Majesty's Government if they are aware that various British Colonies, notably Jamaica, afford certain relief from local taxation to companies engaged in what are usually described. as "Pioneer Industries"; whether they realise that when such companies are legally domiciled in Great Britain, all such advantages are lost to them, owing to the Treasury extorting the full normal rate of tax on the amount gained through such concessions, and whether it is further realised that this procedure acts as a severe deterrent to the investment of British capital in Colonies where it is badly needed; and if the Government will consider the advisability of permitting such British-domiciled companies to retain the benefits of these concessions, and thus terminate a situation in which the British taxpayers are in effect, subsidised by their usually much poorer Colonial counterparts.
§ THE EARL OF SELKIRKThis problem was the subject of a recommendation by the Royal Commission on the Taxation of Profits and Income in their recent Interim Report (Cmd. 8761). The question is a difficult one and my right honourable friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has not felt able to propose in his Budget any action on the lines suggested. I can however assure the noble Lord that the matter will be given further sympathetic consideration and that the points to which he has drawn attention will be borne in mind. In the meantime the tax reliefs introduced in the Budget will do much to help United Kingdom companies operating the Colonies.
House adjourned at twenty-six minutes past eight o'clock.