The Minister devoted a lot of time to discussing the turnover tax. Further explanations are due to us, particularly in view of what has been said by Deputies who spoke immediately after the Minister. The Minister describes this tax as a turnover tax but no matter what fancy name it is given—sales tax, purchase tax, retail sales tax—it means in effect that there will be a tax paid on practically everything by the purchaser or consumer. I think it is well it would be made abundantly clear now that while the evening newspapers have stated there is no new direct taxation or specific tax on cigarettes, tobacco or beer, in fact there is a tax imposed through this turnover tax.
I should like the Minister to say whether or not this tax provides for circumstances in which taxes were abolished in the last two, three or four years on cinemas and dance-halls. If we are to have regard to the list of exempted goods, this means that practically everything one can buy in any shop or store will be subject to this turnover tax of 6d. in the £. We in this Party are concerned as to how the direct purchaser, the consumer, will fare because while the tax is described as being 2½ per cent, or 6d. in the £, we want to be assured by the Minister, if such an assurance is possible, that there will not be a certain amount of profiteering by those who sell the various commodities subject to this tax.
The question was posed to the Minister as to what would happen in regard to the purchase of articles costing 1/- Naturally, the shopkeeper will charge something extra but it cannot be one-fortieth because we have no coinage of that sort. It could be a farthing or a halfpenny. I suspect that in cases like that the consumer will be asked to pay much more than what he would be expected to pay in accordance with the provisions of this Resolution. This turnover tax is designed, so the Minister says, to get £3½ million in a matter of four or five months. Accordingly, I assume that in a normal year it will get something like £8½ million to £9 million.
Do we take it also from the Minister and the Government that this is to be a permanent form of taxation? It has been described by the Minister as being a modest tax at the present time, but it seems to me that if the same Government are in power next year, and they find themselves financially embarrassed, this 2½ per cent tax may go up to 5 per cent, 7½ per cent or even to 10 per cent. Could the Minister say in his opinion, or from the advice he has got, what effect this tax will have on the cost of living index figure? Has he calculated, or have his advisers calculated, what it will mean by way of increase in the cost of living? Our main concern about this tax, which we oppose very strongly, is the effect it will have on the consumer.