HC Deb 12 November 1987 vol 122 cc229-30W
Mr. Gordon Brown

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list all the studies, with their precise remits, that he, or Her Majesty's Customs and Excise, has commissioned on value added tax and revenues from value added tax ; and when he expects them to report to him.

Mr. Lilley

The Economic and Social Research Council, together with the Treasury and other Departments, under the auspices of the Public Finance Consortium, in 1986 commissioned two research projects relating to value added tax. One is being undertaken by Professor Ulph at the University of Bristol; the second is being undertaken by Professor Blundell at University College London.

The aim of Professor Ulph's project is to improve our ability to forecast receipts from value added tax using aggregate data. The project is due to he completed in June 1988.

The aim of Professor Blundell's project is to use micro-economic data to model indirect taxes, both excise duties and value added tax. The funding by the Public Finance Consortium ended in September 1987 but the Treasury and Her Majesty's Customs and Excise have provided additional finance so that the project will now be completed in September 1988.

As my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer told the House on 29 April, at column 329, these projects were selected following an advertisement in The Guardian in March 1985 inviting applications for research proposals on indirect taxes.

Mr. Gordon Brown

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the Government's policy towards extending value added tax, or any attempts to extend value added tax, to cover newspapers, books and periodicals.

Mr. Lilley

Decisions on changes in taxation are a matter for my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Budget judgment.

Mr. Gordon Brown

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assumptions he has made about(a) extensions to value added tax and (b) rises in excise duties when he compiled his forecast for inflation in 1988.

Mr. Lilley

The forecast in the Autumn Statement makes the conventional assumptions that excise duties are revalorised in the Budget in line with RPI inflation in the previous year and that no changes are made in the coverage or rates of value added tax.