Class B.-Other Trading Licences: Numbers and Receipts :

Table 102.-Appraisers and House Agents

116

116

116

117

117

117

118

118

118

119

119

111.-Tobacco Manufacturers

Class C.-Establishment Licences: Numbers and Receipts:—

Class D.-Gun and Game Licences: Numbers and Receipts :

Class E.-Dog Licences: Numbers and Receipts:

Table 118

Local Taxation Accounts

Table 119

Smuggling

:

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136

138

144

165

176

Table 124.-Principal Dutiable Articles: Consumption..
125.-Customs and Excise Duties: Changes, 1914–1926
126. Customs Duties, Drawbacks and Allowances.
127.-Excise

"

"

128.-Excise Licences: Rates of Duty

A 3

TO THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF

HIS MAJESTY'S TREASURY.

We have the honour to submit our Report for the year ended 31st March, 1927, being the 71st Report relating to the Customs, the 70th relating to the Excise, and the 18th relating to the Customs and Excise jointly.

CHANGES IN TAXATION.

The Finance Act, 1926, imposed a new Excise duty on Betting and on certificates to be taken out by bookmakers, and a new Customs duty on Packing and Wrapping Paper; withdrew the exemption of trade vehicles from the import duty on motor cars; continued the Key Industry duty, with certain amendments and extensions, for a further period of ten years; curtailed by one month the period of credit allowed to brewers for the payment of Beer duty; made some minor changes in the Silk duties and drawbacks; repealed the Excise duty on home-grown Chicory; and exempted from Customs duty any imported goods (other than spirits or wines) over one hundred years old, and also (subject to Treasury Order) articles of small value liable to Key Industry, Lace and Embroidery duties.

Details of the changes are given in the relative sections below.

THE REVENUE.

The total revenue received in 1926-27 was approximately £240 million, compared with £237 million in 1925-26, an increase of about £2 million. There was a decrease of nearly £6.4 million on spirits and nearly £0.6 million on sugar; on the other hand, 1926-27 gained over £5 million from the curtailment of the credit period allowed to brewers for payment of the beer duty; it also gained by a full year's receipts from the McKenna duties and the duties on silk, lace, cutlery, gloves, gas mantles, and hops, which were in force for only a part of 1925-26; and it further gained from the new duties on betting and paper first imposed in 1926-27. Compared with the Budget estimate, the year showed a deficit of £93 million, as follows:

The payments into the Exchequer were larger than the actual receipts, as shown in Table 2.

The failure to realise the Budget estimate was due for the most part to the effect of the industrial disturbances in 1926, about £8 million of the deficit being attributable to that cause. There were also very heavy postponements in spirits at the end of the year, which, however, were partly counterbalanced by forestalments in wine, tobacco, tea, and other items. The principal variations from the estimates were as follows:

Figures are given in the more important tables for ten years and in the others for five years, but are not comparable throughout owing to the separation of the Irish Free State, the figures for 1922-23 and subsequent years relating to Great Britain and Northern Ireland only. For 1922-23 itself two sets of figures are given, one representing the revenue actually collected in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the other (shown in the tables in italics) representing the revenue "attributable" to the Imperial Exchequer after adjustments had been made in respect of goods which paid duty in Great Britain or Northern Ireland, but were consumed in the Irish Free State, and vice versa. It is the latter set of figures which must be taken as comparable with the figures for subsequent years.

The adjustments referred to resulted as follows:

Due from Free State in respect of Excise Revenue 7,776,000
Due to Free State in respect of Customs Revenue 4,890,000

Net amount due from Free State

£2,886,000

Of this sum £2,250,000 was paid in 1923–24, £582,000 in 1924-25, and the balance of £54,000 in 1925-26. These sums are accounted for under the heads of "Miscellaneous" in Table 3, "Other Articles and Deposits in Table 4, and "Deposits, etc." in Table 6.

The only figures that are strictly comparable throughout are those relating to the duties on patent medicines, railway passenger fares, entertainments, licences and clubs. The first two duties were never extended to Ireland, while the receipts from the other three duties have always been recorded separately for each part of the United Kingdom.

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A 4

TABLE 1.-Balance Sheet of the Department, 1926-27.