§ Mr. Harold Walkerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what he expects will be the yield, during the current financial year, of the excise duty paid by industrial consumers on oil products.
§ Mr. Peter Rees[pursuant to his reply, 2 December 1980]: The amount of duty on hydrocarbon oil, including road fuel, borne by businesses is estimated to be about £2,000 million in a full year.
§ Mr. Harold Walkerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will reduce the excise duty on fuel oil to bring it into line with the levels applying elsewhere within the European Economic Community.
§ Mr. Peter Rees[pursuant to his reply, 2 December 1980]: I cannot anticipate my right hon. and learned Fiend's Budget Statement.
§ Mr. Harold Walkerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what steps he is taking within the European Economic Community to eliminate or reduce the unfair competition arising from the level of excise duly on oil products applying elsewhere in the Community being less than half than that in the United Kingdom;
(2) what estimate he has made of the price disadvantage suffered by United Kingdom industry compared with industries elsewhere in the European Economic Community as a result of the extra excise duty on oil products borne in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Peter Rees[pursuant to his reply, 2 December 1980]: There are no proposals current in the Community fog harmonisation of the rates of excise duty on oil products. Rates of excise duty vary considerably throughout the Community: details are given in my reply, 3 December 1980, to my hon. Friend the Member for Bedford (Mr. Skeet). United Kingdom rates of duty are by no means uniformly higher than in other member States. On petrol, for example, the United Kingdom rate is among the lowest in the Community.