I move:
(1) That with effect on and from the 16th day of January, 1975, section 10 of the Value-Added Tax Act, 1972 (No. 22 of 1972), be amended as follows—
(a) by the insertion, before subsection (3), of the following subsection:
"(2A) (a) The amount on which tax is chargeable by virtue of section 2 (1) (a) on the delivery of goods of a kind specified in the Fourth Schedule delivered in the circumstances specified in paragraph (b) shall be the open market price.
(b) The circumstances referred to in paragraph (a) in which a delivery is made are—
(i) that the person to whom or to whose order the delivery is made is a body of persons over whom the person making the delivery has control, or the person making the delivery is a body of persons over whom the person to whom or to whom order the delivery is made has control, or both the person making the delivery and the person to whom or to whose order the delivery is made are bodies of persons and some other person has control over both of them,
(ii) that the delivery is made in such circumstances that tax at the rate for the time being specified in section 11 (1) (c) is chargeable in relation thereto, and
(iii) that the consideration referred to in subsection (1) is less than the open market price.",
(b) by the insertion, in subsection (3) (c), before "paragraph (a)" of subsection (2A) or",
(c) by the insertion in subsection (9) (b), before the definition of "the open market price", of the following definition:
"‘control', in relation to a body corporate, means the power of a person to secure, by means of the holding of shares or the possession of voting power in or in relation to that or any other body corporate, or by virtue of any powers conferred by the articles of association or other document regulating that or any other body corporate, that the affairs of the first-mentioned body corporate are conducted in accordance with the wishes of that person and, in relation to a partnership, means the right to a share of more than one-half of the assets, or of more than one-half of the income, of the partnership;".
(2) IT is hereby declared that it is expedient in the public interests that this Resolution shall have statutory effect under the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act 1927 (No. 7 of 1927).
This resolution amends section 10 of the Value-Added Tax Act, 1972 by adding a new subsection, (2A) and by making supplementary and consequential amendments to subsections (3) and (9). The amendments will come into effect as and from tomorrow. The purpose of the amendment is to counter the tax avoidance practice, which the Minister referred to in his budget speech, involving sales between linked companies at artificially low prices of Fourth Schedule goods liable to tax at the 36.75 per cent rate. The amendment will substitute the open market price for tax purposes in such cases.