§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the total number of credit card, in-house card and travel and entertainment charge card transactions in the United Kingdom during 1979 and 1980; what revenue would have been generated if a 50p surcharge had been enforced; and if he will estimate the yield of such a charge for 1981.
§ Mr. LawsonI regret that figures for the total number of credit and charge cards, and consequently for the total number of transactions, are not available. Although the report of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission on credit card franchise services in the United Kingdom, which was published last year, (Cmnd. 8034), provided some information on transactions, this was normally in the form of turnover value. Access and Barclaycard did provide figures for the number of transactions, but these were not on a comparable basis; 56.3 million transaction vouchers were processed by Barclaycard during 1978; and there were 53 million Access transactions in the year to 31 October 1979.
340WIt is not possible to calculate the potential yield of such a surcharge, partly because of the limitations of the data, and partly because the imposition of such a surcharge would undoubtedly alter credit and charge card usage.