Finance Act 1953

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved


Finance Act , 1953

(1 & 2 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 34

An Act to grant certain duties, to alter other duties and to amend the law relating to the National Debt and the Public Revenue, and to make further provision in connection with Finance.

[31st July 1953]

Most Gracious Sovereign,

We , Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom in Parliament assembled, towards raising the necessary supplies to defray Your Majesty's public expenses, and making an addition to the public revenue, have freely and voluntarily resolved to give and grant unto Your Majesty the several duties hereinafter mentioned; and do therefore most humbly beseech Your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

I Customs and Excise

Part I

Customs and Excise

S-1 Continuation of duties on hops, etc. and beer.

1 Continuation of duties on hops, etc. and beer.

(1) The duties charged by virtue of subsection (1) of section three of the Finance Act, 1949, until the end of the fifteenth day of August, nineteen hundred and fifty-three, namely—

(a ) the duties of customs charged on hops and extracts, essences or other similar preparations made from hops under subsection (1) of section seven of the Finance Act, 1925; and

(b ) the duty of customs charged on hop oil under the proviso to subsection (1) of section four of the Finance Act, 1929; and

(c ) the additional duty of customs charged in respect of beer under subsection (2) of section two of the Finance Act, 1933,

shall continue to be charged until the end of the fifteenth day of August, nineteen hundred and fifty-seven.

(2) The drawback allowed by virtue of subsection (2) of section three of the Finance Act, 1949, until the end of the fifteenth day of November, nineteen hundred and fifty-three, namely, the additional excise drawback allowed in respect of beer under subsection (4) of section two of the Finance Act, 1933, shall continue to be allowed until the end of the fifteenth day of November, nineteen hundred and fifty-seven.

S-2 Postponement of payment of excise duty on certain beers brewed by brewers for sale.

2 Postponement of payment of excise duty on certain beers brewed by brewers for sale.

(1) In the case of worts of beer to which this section applies, the proviso to subsection (8) of section one hundred and thirty-three of the Customs and Excise Act, 1952 (which provides that the date of payment of excise duty of which payment is deferred under that subsection shall be not later than the twenty-fifth day of the month next following that in which the duty was charged) shall not apply; and where the Commissioners allow payment of duty to be deferred under that subsection in respect of any such worts of beer, the date of payment shall be such date as may be allowed by the Commissioners, not being later than the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month after the month in which the duty was charged.

(2) This section applies to worts of beer of an original gravity of or exceeding one thousand and seventy degrees and to worts of lager beer, being in each case beer kept for a period of at least three months on the entered premises in which it is brewed, but does not apply to priming or colouring solutions or to worts entered for charge before the first day of August, nineteen hundred and fifty-three.

S-3 Customs duty on mechanical lighters.

3 Customs duty on mechanical lighters.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the duty of customs charged under section six of the Finance Act, 1928, shall cease to be charged on component parts of mechanical lighters, but shall be charged on mechanical lighters imported incomplete as well as complete.

(2) Section two hundred and twenty-two of the Customs and Excise Act, 1952 (which provides for treating as incomplete mechanical lighters for the purposes of excise duty prescribed components of such lighters and assemblies including such components) shall apply for the purposes of the duty of customs charged as aforesaid as it applies for the purposes of excise duty.

(3) For the purposes of the said section two hundred and twenty-two as applied by this section, the prescribed component of a mechanical lighter, other than a lighter appearing to the Commissioners to be constructed solely for the purpose of igniting gas for domestic use, shall, until otherwise provided by an order under subsection (2) of that section, be the body.

(4) So much of subsection (1) of section two hundred and twenty-one of the Customs and Excise Act, 1952 (which enables the Commissioners to make regulations for the purpose of regulating the manufacture of mechanical lighters) as relates to imported wheels for striking a flint shall cease to have effect, and any regulations in force under that subsection on the date on which this section comes into force shall have effect accordingly; but no duty of customs shall be charged on such wheels delivered without payment of duty by virtue of those regulations before that date and accounted for to the satisfaction of the Commissioners.

(5) This section shall be deemed to have had effect as from the first day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-three.

S-4 Import duties on certain sound-recorded material.

4 Import duties on certain sound-recorded material.

(1) Where duty is chargeable under Part I of the Import Duties Act, 1932, in respect of any goods being tapes, wires, discs or other articles which have been recorded with sound by any means, except—

(a ) exposed cinematograph film; and

(b ) goods appearing to the Commissioners to have been produced in quantity for general sale as so recorded,

and the amount of that duty would apart from this subsection exceed the amount which would be so chargeable if those goods had not been used for recording sound, the duty chargeable on those goods shall be charged only up to the last-mentioned amount.

(2) In heading (b ) of sub-paragraph (iii) of the Table set out in paragraph 1 of the Third Schedule to the Finance Act, 1939 (which specifies the duty chargeable under Part I of the Import Duties Act, 1932, on exposed cinematograph film containing only a single sound track), the words ‘a single’ shall be omitted; and heading (b ) of sub-paragraph (iii) of paragraph (20) of Group XVIII in the Second Schedule to the Import Duties (Consolidation) Order, 1949, shall be amended accordingly.

(3) The provisions of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the duties which are chargeable on exposed cinematograph film in accordance with the said Third Schedule to the Finance Act, 1939, and the said Order of 1949.

S-5 Reduction of mechanically propelled vehicles duty in respect of certain motorcycle combinations.

5 Reduction of mechanically propelled vehicles duty in respect of certain motorcycle combinations.

(1) The additional duty of excise chargeable under subsection (2) of section two of the Vehicles (Excise) Act, 1949, in respect of bicycles used for drawing a trailer or sidecar shall be reduced, in the case of bicycles of which the cylinder capacity of the engine does not exceed two hundred and fifty cubic centimetres and bicycles electrically propelled, from one pound five shillings to ten shillings; and accordingly Part I of the First Schedule to that Act shall have effect as if in the third column for the figures ‘1 5 s. 0 d. ’ in the first, second and fourth places where they occur, there were substituted the figures ‘10 s. 0 d. ’

(2) This section shall come into force on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and fifty-four.

S-6 Mechanically propelled vehicles duty on agricultural tractors carrying fitted implements.

6 Mechanically propelled vehicles duty on agricultural tractors carrying fitted implements.

6. A vehicle falling within paragraph (a ) of subsection (2) of section four of the Vehicles (Excise) Act, 1949 (which relates to ploughing engines, tractors and other agricultural engines), shall not be chargeable with duty under section five of that Act as a goods vehicle by reason of the fact that it is constructed or adapted for use and used for the conveyance of farming or forestry implements fitted thereto for operation while so fitted.

S-7 Exemption from entertainment duty of certain amateur sports and entertainments.

7 Exemption from entertainment duty of certain amateur sports and entertainments.

(1) Entertainments duty shall not be charged on payments for admission to an entertainment which consists solely of games, races or other sports, being an entertainment to which, apart from this section, the second scale of duty would be applicable, where the Commissioners are satisfied—

(a ) that the entertainment is provided by a society, institution or committee established and conducted for the promotion and furtherance of amateur games or sports and not conducted or established for profit; and

(b ) that no payment is made or reward given for the participation of any person in any game, race or other sport constituting the entertainment or part of the entertainment, other than prizes of a reasonable number and value competed for and won by individuals taking part therein.

(2) For the purposes of section ten of the Finance Act, 1949 (which exempts certain amateur theatrical and other entertainments from duty) an entertainment shall not be...

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