§ Mr. Michael Brownasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement about an advance of own resources payments to the European Communities in January.
§ Mr. Ian StewartThe Commission has, in accordance with article 10(2) of Council Regulation 2891/77, invited member states to advance from 20 February to 21 January payments of own resources other than VAT in respect of agricultural, sugar and isoglucose levies and customs duties collected by the Government on their behalf in
190WDecember. The Government are complying with this request, which is entirely separate from the intergovernmental agreement of 2/3 October 1984.
Pending parliamentary approval of a spring Supplementary Estimate, payment of £99 million will be made by a repayable advance from the Contingencies Fund. The payment of levies and duties on 20 February 1985 which is made directly from the Consolidated Fund under section 2(3) of the European Communities Act 1972 will be reduced by the amount of the advance. There will therefore be no net addition to forecast public expenditure.
Any further requests for advances will be considered in the light of the then prevailing circumstances.