Clause 19 - Face-value vouchers

Part of Finance Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 9:30 am on 20 May 2003.

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Photo of Stephen O'Brien Stephen O'Brien Shadow Paymaster General 9:30, 20 May 2003

I am most grateful to you for ensuring that I keep on the technical straight and narrow in terms of procedure, Sir Nicholas. As you are Chairman of the Procedure Committee, I would expect no less.

Amendment No. 89, which it is clear that I shall move, is well intended. I have listened carefully to what the Economic Secretary had to say. He said that it is not the Government's intent to collect VAT from anyone where it is not due, given that the annotation cited in paragraph 5 of the note from the VAT information sheet 03/03 is not compulsory. The clear intent, which both the representations that we have received and our own analysis suggest is right, is set out in paragraph 5, and there seems to be no countervailing argument to convince me why it

should not appear in the Bill. Therefore, I shall in due course urge my colleagues to press amendment No. 89 to a vote.

As far as amendment No. 90 is concerned, I was interested to note that the Economic Secretary thought that the amendment would result in a loss of £30 million. If that were to prove to be true, we would not want to be party to it. Following the points ably put by my right hon. Friend the Member for Fylde on whether the Economic Secretary should write to all the bodies and institutes who have given advice, I would certainly urge him to do so.

The Economic Secretary claims that all the businesses that may be affected are already in touch with Customs and Excise. Given that contracts are in train, there may be some who would be affected, however much consultation took place in earlier months. That should be advertised widely, and we need the Economic Secretary's assurance that that will be properly and thoroughly addressed. On the basis that I hope that the Economic Secretary will be able to give that reassurance, I would not press amendment No. 90. At this stage, however, I have not been convinced that we should not press amendment No. 89 to a vote.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 19 ordered to stand part of the Bill.