§ Mr. Maurice Macmillanasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the total investment over the last three months of funds from the OPEC countries in the short end of the gilt-edged market; and what, over the same period, is the total amount of oil royalties due to these countries but retained in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. DellIt is not customary to publish such information. Quarterly figures of banking and money market liabilities in sterling for groups of countries including the overseas sterling countries in the Middle East are published in Financial Statistics. The end-March 1974 figure will be published in the June edition.
258WThe reduced rates of stamp duty which have been applied in calculating the duty in the third column above for houses whose sale price is £20,000, £25,000 or £30,000 are available only where the conveyance is certified to the effect that the transaction does not form part of a larger transaction or series of transactions of which the total value exceeds that amount.
The duty is normally paid by the purchaser of a property, not by the vendor.
§ Mr. Shersbyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will set out in tabular from in the OFFICIAL REPORT the increased cost of a new private house costing (a) £20,000, (b) £30,000, and (c) £40,000 resulting from the increase in stamp duty annouced in his Budget Statement, assuming that this increased cost is all passed on to the purchaser; and what would be the gross and net annual increase in mortgage repayments solely as the result of the stamp duty assuming a 25-year loan at 11 per cent. interest and the mortgagor paying tax at the standard rate.