IN
Tattersalls
R271
PA
Weekly Survey of the Textile Scene
F. W. TATTERSALL LTD.
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61 MOSLEY STREET WOOLWICH HOUSE
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MANCHESTER 2
061-236 8757
No. 1,422
22nd April, 1969.
A STAB IN THE BACK.
By an extraordinary and unusual failure of the commentators to spot a major item in the Chancellor's Budget it was not until nearly 24 hours after his speech that the textile industry woke up to the fact that purchase tax had been imposed on a number of previously exempt articles and now covered the whole range of household goods a market claimed to be worth about £300 million annually.
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The fact that the news did not break until later and was studiously avoided in official announcements on the day, when atten- tion was more directed towards the inclusion of potato crisps and pet foods, may, however, have been a blessing in disguise There must always be plenty of comment immediately after the Budget but the day's delay enabled the industry's case to get full headline treat- ment subsequently.
As has been readily admitted, this new imposition could not have come at a worse time for the trade, which is already feeling the effects of a considerable downturn in retail demand with the usual
When the Government has accompaniment of shortening order books. been so specific in its protestations that nothing could be done on the import situation until after the Textile Council's report was published this fiscal change in a notoriously delicate section of the market can only be described as a stab in the back.
Only last week figures were given of the imports of woven made-up cotton articles during 1968 which were far higher than in any other previous year. In the case of woven household textiles, although the volume of imports was virtually unchanged compared with 1967, their cost at £11,483,000 was over £1,350,000 up, reaching a new peak.
Redress Demanded.
Competition from abroad in such materials seems certain to increase after the new tax shock and the leaders of the industry have every justification for demanding redress, particularly as they have been kept at arm's length by the Board of Trade for so long on innumerable pretexts.
The Textile Council itself summarised all these points in its strongly-worded protest to the Government on the imposition of purchase tax on a number of products which had been exempt since 1955. "These new taxes, "the statement said, "are far more than the tidying-up of existing anomolies as was suggested in the Budget speech."
Recent Ministerial statements, the Council added, had repeat- edly emphasised that no major decision affecting the industry would
The be taken until the productivity report had been fully studied. announcement would have an unsettling effect on the industry for two valid reasons. It would induce an erratic pattern of demand on a
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