§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the Revenue Department can shift its duty of collecting 2555W Petrol Tax from manufacturers and dealers on to private persons having no power in the matter; whether it is in accordance with his promise of rebate to medical practitioners to make them liable for others, over whom they have no power, by withholding the rebate to which the Finance Act entitles them, when their vouchers show they have paid 3d. per gallon tax, and could get no petrol without paying this; and what more, in addition to proving the payment of tax by them on all the petrol they have used in the practice of their profession, are medical practitioners required to do in order to get the statutory rebate?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThere is nothing in the regulations governing the charging of Motor Spirit Duty which throws the responsibility of collecting the duty on users of petrol. Whenever satisfactory evidence is forthcoming that the duty has been paid on motor spirit used by a duly qualified medical practitioner for the purposes of his profession, repayment of the proper amount is made; but, for the reasons given in the answers of the 8th and 15th March last, the fact that a sum equivalent to the duty has been included in the price charged to a purchaser by a dealer cannot be regarded as proving that the duty has been paid to the Crown by a manufacturer or an importer.