Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1940 > Committee of Public Accounts > Interim and Final Report - Appropriation Accounts 1939 - 1940

APPENDIX XIII.

ADMINISTRATION OF BUTTER STOCKS (LEVY) ORDER, 1938

1. Section 4 (1) of the Dairy Produce (Price Stabilisation) Act, 1938, provides that the Minister for Agriculture may by Order declare that every butter trader shall pay a levy at a specified rate on all creamery butter and non-creamery butter held by such butter trader on an appointed date. In pursuance of this authority the Butter Stocks (Levy) Order, 1938, was made declaring that every butter trader should pay a levy at the rate of 9/- per cwt. on butter held by him on the 10th December, 1938.

2. The expression “butter trader” in the said Act and Order has the same meaning as in the Dairy Produce Act, 1931, that is, “a person who carried on for trade or gain, whether alone or in conjunction with any other business, the business of selling, by wholesale or retail, butter.” As this definition covers several thousand small shopkeepers many of them selling less than ½ cwt. of butter per week, it would be impossible to take a census of the butter held by each on a particular date without the employment of large indoor and outdoor staffs whose salaries and expenses would be much greater than the amount of levy that could be collected. The Department had, therefore, to consider what was administratively possible and decided that it was necessary to limit the scope of the levy so as to exclude the large numbers of people dealing in butter in a small way and concentrate on some well-defined class from whom collection of levy would be feasible and worth while. The only such class known to the Department were persons on whom notice to supply returns had already been served under the Dairy Produce Act, 1931. Accordingly it was arranged that the levy should be confined to such persons and levy was in fact collected on the butter held on the appointed date by every butter trader on whom statutory notice to supply returns had been served prior to the making of the levy Order.

3. In consequence of the decision arrived at, it has happened that thirty-one butter traders who held between them 566 cwts. 70 lbs. of butter in public cold store on the appointed date were not required to pay levy. Levy could have been demanded in these cases provided that the same action was taken in respect of all persons occupying similar legal status, that is, butter traders on whom notice under the Dairy Produce Act, 1931, had not been served. As already indicated this would have presented insurmountable difficulties. Moreover, the only knowledge the Department had of stocks held by persons not required to furnish returns was that contained in the statements received from public cold stores. With this information only available, cases would be bound to arise of levy being collected from butter traders in respect of their stocks in public cold store, while levy would not be collected from similar traders holding larger stocks at their own premises. In the circumstances it seemed to the Department that the only safe and logical thing to do was to confine levy to some well-defined group and this course was adopted. In this connection it may be mentioned that the list of persons required to furnish returns under the Dairy Produce Act, 1931, is increased from time to time by the addition of names of persons found to be dealing in butter otherwise than as small retailers.

4. The Dairy Produce (Price Stabilisation) (Amendment) Act, 1938, under which the Levy Order was made provides that every levy under the Order shall become due and payable on the seventh day after the date on which the Order imposing such levy was made. This provision was not complied with in respect of butter in stock on the appointed day

(a) which was subsequently exported, or

(b) which was not sold immediately after the appointed day, or

(c) in respect of which a cold storage allowance was payable by the Department to the holders of the butter.

5. As regards these matters, urgent representations were made by the trade that strict enforcement of the provisions of the Act would cause serious financial embarrassment to a majority of the firms holding butter stocks, especially as they were already heavily committed to banks to finance the carrying of the stocks. In the circumstances, it was decided

(a) not to collect levy on butter held for export as the amounts collected would have to be subsequently added to the payments made by the Department for export bounties and subsidies when export took place,

(b) to postpone collection of levy on butter not held for export until after the butter was sold on the home market, and

(c) to permit cold storage allowances payable to certain holders to be deducted by them from their liability for levy, instead of requiring them to pay levy in full and afterwards refunding them the storage allowances.

6. These concessions enabled the holders of butter stocks to meet their liabilities with the minimum of inconvenience to them and without any loss to the Department.

7. The covering sanction of the Department of Finance is being sought in respect of all matters dealt with in this memorandum.

Accounting Officer,

Department of Agriculture.

26th June, 1940.