§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why he has presented two separate supplementary estimates, for £99 million and £265 million, respectively, for advance payments to the Common Market; and on what basis they have been calculated as representing one month's payment of European Economic Community own-resources other than value added tax own-resources.
§ Mr. Ian Stewart[pursuant to his reply, 14 March 1985, c. 259]: There is only one Spring supplementary estimate for the Budget of the European Communities. It was first presented to Parliament on 14 February (HC 183 of 1984–85) and later revised to take account of new information and new decisions. The revised Supplementary Estimate for £364 million was then presented on 28 February (HC 227 of 1984–85). This allows for 3 payments to the Community in the final 397W quarter of the 1984–85 financial year of non-VAT own resources to be made in the month after collection, rather than two months after collection. These payments do not involve any net addition to public expenditure. Details were given in the Financial Secretary's note also presented to Parliament on 28 February.
The estimates of these payments are based on the provisional accounts of Customs and Excise and the Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce. They represent a non-audited statement of the amount recorded in the Department's accounts for the monies collected and deferred for customs duties and agricultural and sugar and isoglucose levies for the months in question.