Clause 18 - Fee for payment of duty by credit card

Part of Finance Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 4:15 pm on 6 May 2004.

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Photo of Quentin Davies Quentin Davies Conservative, Grantham and Stamford 4:15, 6 May 2004

I agree with many of the points made by my right hon. Friend. I thoroughly share his protest about the extent to which the Bill relies on giving the Government the power to make regulations

subsequently. We all know that the parliamentary scrutiny given to those regulations will be an absolute farce, even if they go through a delegated legislation Committee, which is most undesirable.

I very much agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Chichester that what is particularly undesirable about the clause is that the levy is not capped. The Government appear to be asking Parliament to give them the right to levy any amount that they want to under the name of this transaction charge. I also agree with the hon. Member for Yeovil that it is completely unacceptable that the Government have not even made it clear that the amount that they will levy will be limited to any costs that the DVLA incurs when having to pay credit or debit card companies if they prove to be included.

This is unsatisfactory, and we should not leave this discussion without the Minister answering those questions very specifically. This is a tax on a tax, which is a most unattractive and sinister development. I use the word ''sinister'' advisedly. There have been various attempts to define rather dishonest euphemisms for the charge by saying that it is a ''convenience charge'', or something of that sort. It is actually a tax on a tax. It is a tax when the state forces the citizen through the law to pay something.