§ Mr. Gwilym JonesTo ask the Prime Minister what is the total tax paid by the people of Wales, including to local councils; what is the total expenditure from that taxation in Wales by Government, local councils and all other bodies so financed including the relevant proportion for Wales of any expenditure on a wider basis; and what these figures are per head of the Welsh population.
§ Mr. MellorI have been asked to reply. Information on the total tax paid by people in Wales is not available. Information is, for example, not available for capital gains tax. Data is available on income tax payments and the latest information, which relates to 1988–89, is given in table 2.10 of the 1991 issue of Inland Revenue Statistics. Precise figures for receipts from indirect tax payments paid by people in Wales are not available but it is estimated that the Welsh share of United Kingdom taxes collected by HM Customs and Excise in 1990–91 was about £2½billion. The latest information on community charge and non-domestic rate payments indicates that at 31 March 1991 local authorities had received an estimated £360 million (£125 per head) in community charges for 1990–91678W and that payments of non-domestic rates by businesses for 1990–91 were an estimated £430 million (£150 per head) at the same date.
Information on general government expenditure in Wales in 1990–91, other than that incurred for the benefit of the UK as a whole, is given in tables E6a and E6b of appendix E of the statistical supplement to the 1991 Autumn Statement (Cm. 1920).