§ Sir R. Russellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will state the proportion of the gross national product provided by the public and private sectors of the economy, respectively, the total amount paid by each sector in direct taxation over the last five years, and the losses incurred by each sector and 249W borne by the Exchequer over the same period, excluding agricultural support.
§ Mr. GreenThe public sector provides approximately one-quarter of the gross national product at factor cost and the private sector three-quarters. These proportions are calculated from the detailed sector analysis of the different types of factor income given in Table 12 of the National Income Blue Book. In the five years 1959–63 the public sector paid £49 million in direct taxation and the private sector paid £14,278 million. The latter figure includes tax paid by employees of the public sector and tax on interest paid by the public sector to the private sector.
In the years 1959–63 the total subsidies paid by the Central Government, excluding those for agriculture and food, amounted to £1,000 million. The whole of this was paid to other parts of the public sector, the main items being the payments to meet the deficits of the British Transport Commission and the subsidies for local authority housing.