§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects to have a precise figure for loss of mainstream corporation tax receipts from banks due to provisions on doubtful foreign debts incurred in Third world lending for the year 1985–86.
§ Mr. LilleyThe precise amount will be determined only when all banks with sovereign debt have agreed their tax assessments for the appropriate accounting period with their tax inspector. It is not possible to forecast with certainty when this will be. In any event, it would involve disproportionate expense to collect centrally information about all the adjustments which will be made by every bank, so the information collected centrally will remain an estimate with some degree of imprecision.