§ Mr. RAMSBOTHAMasked the Postmaster-General if the statement of the sale of Post Office stamps includes stamps used for receipt purposes and, if so, whether he can make an estimate of the amounts so used; and, if not, whether he will, in the interests of proper accounting, reissue a special type of receipt stamp such as used to be in circulation and which permitted the amount to be exactly estimated?
§ Mr. LEES-SMITHThe value of the postage stamps used for inland revenue purposes can be estimated with a reasonable degree of accuracy and in the Post Office Commercial Accounts it is deducted from the total of postage stamps sold before arriving at the postal surplus. The amount so deducted for 1928–29, as shown on page 17 of the account, was £2,033,205. The second part of the question therefore does not arise, and in any case a reversion to the special receipt stamp would cause great inconvenience to the public.