§ Mr. ASHTONasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether for the financial year 1909–10 there was deducted from the new sinking fund the sum of £2,800,000; 761W and whether, in his estimate of the surplus of the financial year 1909–10 as being £4,300,000, the sum of £2,800,000 is treated as having been returned to the sinking fund before estimating the surplus, or whether that sum is included in the estimated surplus of £4,300,000?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe Fixed Debt charge for the year 1909–10 was put at £24,500,000 by Clause 92 of the Finance Bill, 1909, as passed by the House of Commons in 1909. Owing to the difficulties caused by the rejection of that Bill in the House of Lords, it was found necessary in the Treasury (Temporary Borrowing Powers) Bill, 1910, to enact that the amount of the Fixed Debt charge to be issued in 1909–10 should be limited to the amount required for the annual charges directed by the National Debt and Local Loans Act, 1887, or any other Act, to be paid out of that charge, and the amount required for the redemption of the Exchequer bonds of 1905. Accordingly, the total sum issued was £21,757,661 3s. 9d., a reduction of £2,742,338 16s. 3d. on the figure of £24,500,000 mentioned above. The figure of £4,300,000 given by me on the 20th ultimo as the estimated surplus of revenue over expenditure in respect of the year 1909–10, so far as the revenue attributable to that year can be distinguished from that of 1910–11, is arrived at on the basis of a Fixed Debt charge of £21,757,661 3s. 9d.