§ Mr. Banksasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the rates of value added tax levied in EEC countries on items relevant to the agricultural and horticultural sectors.
§ Mr. Peter ReesThe rates are as follows:
Belgium
2 per cent.: deliveries of wood.6 per cent.: live animals, meat, fish, dairy and vegetable products, animal foods and fertilizers, fuel used for agricultural machines and tractors, agricultural services relating to cultivation, harvesting and breeding.16 per cent. (standard rate): other items.Denmark
22 per cent. (only rate).Germany
6.5 per cent.: live animals, meat, fish, dairy products, vegetables, natural fertilizers, bulbs, live plants.13 per cent. (standard rate): other items.France
7 per cent.: products derived from agriculture providing they have not been processed, animal foodstuffs, by-products of the slaughtering of animals, fertilizers.17.6 per cent. (standard rate): other items.Ireland
0 per cent.: animal feeding stuffs, fertilizers.Exempt: insemination of livestock.10 per cent.: animal and vegetable produce in an unprocessed state and seeds.25 per cent. (standard rate): other items.Italy
6 per cent.: live animals, meat, fish, dairy products, vegetables, bulbs, tubers, grapes, vegetable products used as animal food, wood, wool, fruit, fertilizers, services supplied with the use of agricultural machines.15 per cent. (standard rate): other items.Luxembourg
5 per cent.: live animals, meat, fish, dairy products, vegetables, grapes, fruit, fertilizers, wood.10 per cent. (standard rate): other items.Netherlands
4 per cent.: live animals, meat, dairy products, bread, vegetables, agricultural and horticultural seeds, fertilizers, machinery used for agriculture, bulbs, flowers, plants, certain services—bookkeeping, tax consultants offices, hired agricultural enterprises, artificial inseminations.18 per cent. (standard rate): other items.United Kingdom
0 per cent.: most foodstuffs, animal feeding stuffs, seeds and other means of propogation, live animals of a kind generally used as food for human consumption.Exempt: most transactions in land.15 per cent. (standard rate): certain other items (e.g. sales of timber, grant of right to take game or fish).