§ Sir R. Blairasked the Minister of Labour whether the Purchase Tax operates as a load-factor in calculating the cost-of-living index; and, in future, will he show separately its estimated rough effect on the index total, so as to disclose whether this revenue tax tends to defeat one of its purposes by inflating the index when the index is used to regulate a war bonus under a wage agreement?
§ Mr. BevinIn the calculation of the cost-of-living index figures, account is taken of increases in retail prices resulting from the operation of the Purchase Tax. An estimate of the effect of the tax on the index figures has regularly been published, both in the statements in which the index figures have been issued to the Press and in the monthly issues of the "Ministry of Labour Gazette"