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In Bute, we have the ridiculous pricing policy whereby I can buy white diesel for our farm tanks more cheaply than my local garage can purchase it for retail sales.If pricing is a separate matter that the Transport and the Environment Committee will not consider, we should be the lead committee on it.
In that vein, I associate myself with other members' appreciation of the Finance Committee's clerking staff, who often draft our reports, SPICe staff and the committee's adviser.
Frank McAveety said that the minister was divine; I did not.The values and principles that are in the SPICe document and that underpin the bill are equally important.
There are genuine issues about the extent to which people are encouraged to buy at the limit of affordability and take on commitments that they find difficult to maintain with their job and income constraints and family situations.
I am sure that he will protest that the exemption is merely to allow customers to test cigars before buying them. However, as Stewart Maxwell has pointed out, it would be simple for a customer to step outside the shop to test the product.
My only concern would be that the tax would disproportionately affect the poorest in our society, who, unfortunately, are the people who tend to buy such products. We need to change attitudes.
A radiology department might want to buy a machine that costs £1 million, but is unable to save money from the £500,000 it gets each year—it all has to be spent.
Does he accept that the Executive will never increase the uptake of organic produce by people who simply cannot afford to buy it until the Executive takes a lead in encouraging organic produce to be more affordable to those who wish to buy it?
In other words, the public will be conned into buying a service of dubious benefit to replace the loss of revenue to registrar services that councils run.