§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will publish in the Official Reporta table showing (a) the nominal rate of contribution to the European Community budget in each of the past six years under the value added tax formula, (b) the actual rate of contribution of the United Kingdom and other European Community countries in terms of their own value added tax collection and (c) the estimated effect of the proposed increase in the nominal rate to 1.4 per cent. on the actual rate of contribution in the case of the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Ian StewartMember states have paid VAT own resources since 1979. The following table shows the Community budget VAT rate and the United Kingdom's VAT own resources payments as a proportion of United Kingdom domestic VAT since then. Information is not readily available to construct comparable figures for other148W member states. The differences between the two figures arise because the Communities' VAT rate is calculated on a notional harmonised VAT tax base which differs frotn the actual tax base in most member states.
Community VAT Budget rate UK VAT Own Resources Payments as a percentage of domestic VAT base 1979 0.7889 0.79 1980 0.7322 0.64 1981 0.8667 0.90 1982 0.9248 1.05 1983* 0.9980 n.a. *Estimate. The VAT rate is subject to a 1 per cent. limit. Each 0.1 per cent. increase in the limit would currently add some £170 million to the United Kingdom's contribution if the current budgetary arrangements of the Community remained unchanged. The Government have made clear, however, that they would only be prepared to consider the case for an increase in the VAT limit provided that there is a more equitable arrangement for burden sharing of contributions and strict budgetary control of agricultural and other expenditure.