Value-added Tax

HC Deb 28 March 1972 vol 834 cc41-2W

Mr. Alan Williams

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in the Official Report a list of those categories of goods which it is proposed will pay value-added tax at 10 per cent. in the United Kingdom and which pay lower rates of value-added tax in any of the European Economic Community countries.

Mr. Higgins

No. Detailed examination of the legislation of the five E.E.C. countries with a value-added tax to identify such goods would require a disproportionate expenditure of time and effort.

Mr. Stokes

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will take steps to ensure that the incidence of value-added tax on purchases made by the nationalised industries and the Post Office Corporation need not increase the cost of these industries' products, and the services of the Post Office Corporation, to the consumer.

Mr. Higgins

My right hon. Friend's proposals for value-added tax on the products of the nationalised industries and the services of the Post Office Corporation are set out in the draft legislation in the White Paper on Value-Added Tax (Cmnd. 4929).