Report from the Select Committee on Medicine Stamp Duties.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Medicine Stamp Duties.
Date:
1937
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report from the Select Committee on Medicine Stamp Duties. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    REPORT The Select Committee appointed to consider the duties of excise chargeable under the Medicines Stamp Act, 1802, the Stamp Act, 1804, and the Medicines Stamp Act, 1812, and any enactment amending those Acts, and to report thereon and make such recom- mendations for the alteration of those duties or otherwise as they think fit with a view to reforming the law relating thereto: Have agreed to the following Report :— EVIDENCE. 1. Your Committee have heard evidence from all sources which they considered could yield useful information or opinions regard- ing the subject of their enquiry. They have endeavoured to give an opportunity to appear before them, to all persons or bodies who so wished. In certain cases, where this has not been possible, a written statement has been submitted. In addition, several docu- ments and memoranda were submitted by certain firms and other interested parties, and, at the request of the Committee, by the Customs and Excise. plAMP DUTY LAW. 2. Duties in respect of medicines were first imposed in 1783 as part of the Budget of that year, it being considered at that time that ‘‘ quack medicines were very proper objects of taxation ’’. The tax was twofold as it is to-day. It was imposed on “ all persons who sold medicines and who were not regularly bred to the profession of doctors, apothecaries, etc.,’’ and secondly a duty was ‘‘ Jaid on the medicines ’’ themselves when sold by such persons. This is worthy of note as showing that the original aim of the legislature in touching the ‘‘ patent’’ medicine trade was, primarily, not to control it but to obtain revenue from it. A further Act altering the tax followed in 1785, but this was in its turn repealed in 1802, in which year the first of the Acts in force to-day was passed. The principle of two duties (a licence duty and a medicine duty) was maintained, the intention being still to tax “‘ quack ’’ medicines and the persons who made and sold them, and a Schedule containing the names of a large number of dutiable medicines was attached to the Act. This schedule with certain alterations was revised in 1808 and re-enacted in the Act of 1804 (which was a general Stamp Act dealing with various kinds of duty), and a general provision imposing a charge on all articles not specifically named, together with a schedule of exemp- tions, was added. The Medicines Stamp Act of 1812, on which 40963 A 2