§ Mr. Lawrence asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the light of the substantial fall in beer sales since his last Budget, what is now his estimate of the total yield to the Exchequer, net of administrative costs, from beer tax for the current year; and how it compares with the total tax yield from beer in each of the past five years.
§ Mr. Bruce-Gardyne: The Budget estimate of the yield in 1981–82 of excise duty on beer was £1,440 million and it is estimated that net receipts of VAT from the sale of beer will be about £800 million. It would be contrary to practice to publish revisions of the Budget estimates 404W during the financial year. Net receipts of beer duty and estimates of the amount of VAT charged on sales of beer in the last 5 years were as follows:
| £ million | ||
| 1976–77 | 808.3 | 250 |
| 1977–78 | 892.7 | 290 |
| 1978–79 | 892.9 | 310 |
| 1979–80 | 916.4 | 600 |
| 1980–81 | *1,048.1 | 750 |
| * Provisional |
§ The cost of administration of the Customs and Excise service is subdivided only into main functions. Deductions to take account of the costs of administering the excise duties on all alcoholic drinks and of VAT, as a whole, would now probably be of the order of 1 per cent. of the respective revenues.