Meanwhile Mr. Churchill has not replaced the abandoned tax by
any other. Perhaps he shares the common belief that his estimates of revenue from Income Tax and the petrol tax were below the mark. This is uncertain ground, but so, also, is his assumption that it will be possible to distinguish between the lighter and heavier oils. Several Chancellors of the Exchequer rejected the petrol duty on the ground that no unmistakable line could be drawn between petrol and heavier oils, and, of course, Mr. Churchill himself, when introducing the Budget, pointed out that discrimination would be extremely difficult. We wonder, by the way, whether traders in benzole really think they were justified in raising the price of benzole the day after the Budget was introduced by the full amount of the petrol tax. Benzole, of course, is not taxed. It contains petrol, we believe, but a proportion of petrol would not justify the asking of the full amount of the tax. The chief argument of the proprietors of benzole seems to be that their supply is limited and that they must therefore avoid exhausting it. We must hope that such an excuse will not long have either sense or plausibility, for one of the objects of the Budget is to encourage the by-products of the coal-fields.
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