Reliefs

Part of Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 4:30 pm on 30 January 2018.

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Photo of Peter Dowd Peter Dowd Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury 4:30, 30 January 2018

The hon. Member for Aberdeen North made some valid points. The reality is that this, to all intents and purposes, is a tax relief. It can be dressed up in whatever way the Minister would like, but it is de facto a tax relief. We already have something like 1,400 tax reliefs, which ordinarily would come to Parliament for their ratification. This seems to be a potential slew of tax reliefs—I will not comment on whether they are good, bad or indifferent—that will be given the imprimatur of a Minister or the Treasury without Parliament having any say whatsoever in that tax raising. That is not a power that Parliament should give away lightly, so I am afraid we cannot accept the Minister’s explanation that these are somehow technicalities and nothing to do with tax. Raising money, which is the prerogative of Parliament, is a technicality in our view.