The Annual Report of the Commissionors of I.M, Customs and Uxcise was published just prior to Christmas, Drinkers and smokers are shown to be among the main financial supporters of the Government. We have extracted some of the more important figures from the reporte
The report shows that the total revenue receipts rose to £2,670 million, an increase of £88 million over the previous year, This repr- esents 402.6% of the total revenue from central government taxation, On tobacco the report shows that the duty collected was £878 million - 3284 of total revenue, and £8 million more than the previous years; but the woight of tobacco retained for consumption dropped by 5.67 million ib. to 251,11 million lb,
The extension of purchase tax to confectionery, soft drinks and ise cream accounted for much of the increase of £49 million in the total yield of the tax which amounted to £570 million. Receipts on hydrocarbon oils amounted to £544 million - 2086 of total revenue and £34 million more than the previous year.
Alecholic liquors accounted for 173% of the total revenue - £465" million, an increase of £22 million, Teer receipts contributed more then half of this figure. Consumption fell very slightly to 28.3 million bulk barrels but receipts rose by :£7 million to &54 million.
Protective import duties fell by nearly £5 million to just under £145 million ~ 58% of the total revenue, This decrease was principally due to some reductions in duty rates following EFTA and GATT agreements. Other duties accounted for the remaining 24% of the revenue, of which the principal items wore betting (£31.4 million), matches and lighters (£12,2 million), television licence duty (£12.3 million) and felevision ‘advorts duty (£7.5 million).