§ Mr. Viggersasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the total revenues accruing from North Sea oil and gas exploitations in the year 1978–79 and for each of the 10 subsequent years broken down into individual categories, on the same basis as used in the reply to the hon. Member for Reigate, (Mr. Gardiner), Official Report, 9 February, c. 341–2, and on the basis of the Department of Energy's latest estimates of production assuming (a) the current prevailing levels of taxation and (b) the increased rate and revised allowances for petroleum revenue tax proposed by Her Majesty's Government on 2 August 1978.
§ Mr. Joel Barnett, pursuant to the reply [Official Report, 23 February; Vol. 963, c. 333], gave the following answer:
566WThe available information for 1978–79 was included in the reply to the honourable Member for Reigate (Mr. Gardiner). It is not the practice to publish estimates of tax receipts in the coming year in anticipation of the Financial Statement and Budget Report nor, in view of the uncertainties involved, to give estimates for individual future years outside the period covered by that report. I cannot at present add, therefore, to the figures given at the time of the statement I made on 2 August 1978.