asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is aware that the duty on compression joints is being levied on boiler unions, brass gas fittings, nipples, diminishers, ferrules, etc.; if it is intended to levy this duty on compression joints for light copper tubes only, or if it is the intention to levy this duty on all fittings bearing an external thread.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Duty on Machinery Parts.
Customs duty is not chargeable on compression joints as such. There is a Customs duty chargeable at the rate of 50 per cent. ad valorem (33½ per cent. preferential rate) on any of the following articles made wholly or mainly of brass, bronze or gun-metal, or a combination of any of those metals:—
"Couplings, joints, and other similar fittings which, in the opinion of the Revenue Commissioners, are designed, constructed, and intended for use in connection with tubes or pipes and bear any external screwthreading and are of an external diameter, at any such screw-threading, not exceeding one and one-half inches."
Any of the articles mentioned in the Deputy's question and which come within this definition are liable to Customs duty at the rate specified.
As this Customs duty is placed under the care and management of the Revenue Commissioners, its interpretation is a matter for them.