§ Mr. Proctorasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will set out in the Official Report the budgetary increases, in retail terms, imposed on excise products, cigarettes, petrol, beer, spirits and wine, and the changes in consumption in 1979 and in the latest year for which he has figures, in real and percentage terms; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HayhoeThe increase in the prices of typical retail packs, including consequential value added tax, resulting from the June 1979 and March 1984 Budgets, were of the following order:
(pence) 1979* 1984 Cigarettes (packet of 20) +6 +10 Petrol (gallon) +10 +4½ Beer (pint) +3 +2 Spirits (75c1 bottle at 40% vol.) +30 +10 Wine (70c1 bottle of table wine) +10 -18 (70c1 bottle of sherry) +11 +10 *Increase due to raising the rate of VAT. No effective duty changes.
For consumption, I assume my hon. Friend refers to changes compared to the previous 12 months for the years in question. The information, derived from Customs and Excise statistics of quantities charged with excise duty released into domestic consumption, is as follows: 187W
Change in quantities released into consumption over the previous 12 months 1979 Actual change Percentage change 1984* Actual change Percentage change Cigarettes -1.2 (billions) -0.9 +3.3 (billions) +3.3 Light oil (mainly petrol) -0.6 (billion litres) -2.3 +0.6 (billion litres) +2.4 Beer +0.4 (million hectolitres) +0.7 -0.4 (million hectolitres) -0.6 Spirits +97.7 ('000 hectolitres of alcohol) +10.2 +24.5 ('000 hectolitres of alcohol) +2.7 Wine of fresh grapes +0.3 (million hectolitres) +9.5 +0.6 (million hectolitres) +12.1 * Provisional figures for year ending 30 September.