I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. This Bill proposes to confirm three Emergency Orders, Nos. 203, 204 and 206. The first of the orders is an amendment of a definition which appears in Section 1 of the Finance (Customs Duties) (No. 4) Act, 1932, whereby a customs duty was imposed at the rate of 9d. per square yard, or 6d. preferential on articles defined as compositions made of plaster of paris in sheets or slabs. Emergency Order No. 203, which it is proposed to confirm by this Bill, simply alters that definition to make it read:—
"Compositions which are made wholly or mainly of or from gypsum and calcium of sulphate and which are imported in sheets or slabs."
There will be no change in the rate of duty.
The Emergency Imposition of Duties (No. 204) Order provides for an amendment in the application of the duty chargeable on certain woven tissues of wool or worsted. Prior to the making of this order, these woven tissues bore a duty at the rate of £3 per cent., or 30 per cent. preferential, in every case in which the value of the tissue exceeded 1/6 per square yard. The amendment now proposes to raise the exemption limit, that is to say, to extend the exemption so as to cover worsted tissues, not merely which do not exceed 1/6 per square yard, but which do not exceed 2/6 per square yard in value. To that extent it is a relaxation of the duty.
The Emergency Imposition of Duties (No. 206) Order proposes to exempt from duty component parts of agricultural machinery other than ploughs in all cases where the value of those parts does not exceed £2. Hitherto the exemption limit has been 5/- per part, and this, as is clear to Deputies, proposes to raise the exemption limit from 5/- to £2 per part.
