§ Mr. Adam Butlerasked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications if he will consider removing the VAT charge from the telephone bills of retirement pensioners.
§ Sir J. EdenNo, Sir. Without amendment to the Finance Act 1972, this could be achieved only if the Post Office were to subsidise telephone charges to retirement pensioners from the revenue collected from other customers. I do not think that the Post Office can be expected to vary charges between one customer and another according to their circumstances.