Clause 18. — (Charge and commencement of Purchase Tax.)

Part of Orders of the Day — Finance Bill. – in the House of Commons at on 8 August 1940.

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Photo of Mr Samuel Viant Mr Samuel Viant , Willesden West

I agree with the hon. Member who has just spoken that the Purchase Tax can be guaranteed to stir up more irritation than any other proposal. It has been ill-conceived. We agree and sympathise with the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the carrying out of his duty to raise enormous sums of money, but we feel that our support is being unduly strained when we are asked to support a tax so vicious in its application as the Purchase Tax. Some of us would have been pleased at an opportunity to go into the Lobby and register our opposition to the tax, except that, on all sides of the House, we have endeavoured to avoid, during the war, anything in the nature of dividing the House. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has not given a due measure of consideration to our position, and that of the hardly-pressed masses in the country, in including in this tax so many things which are needed in the ordinary households of the people.

In my constituency, many women are already anticipating the manner in which the tax will affect them. Quite a number of wives of serving men, who are already being compelled to seek public assistance to supplement their Service allowances, are already appreciating what effect this Clause will have upon the economic position of their homes and the hardship which it will have on their children. Had there been no other means of obtaining the money, one would have been able to sympathise with the position of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but there are other avenues which could have been explored and proposals which would have had an incidence more equitable in its effect. No one can argue that the Purchase Tax will apply with equality to all sections of the community. The more hardly-pressed the family may be at the present moment the more harsh and hard will be the effect of this Purchase Tax upon their position. I am glad to have had the opportunity of expressing those sentiments regarding the inequity of this tax, and I rather wish that I had an opportunity of registering a protest in the Lobby.