Finance Act, 1938

Duty on certain articles of iron or steel.

16.—(1) A duty of customs at the rate of an amount equal to thirty-seven and one-half per cent, of the value of the article shall be charged, levied, and paid on every of the following articles which is imported on or after the 1st day of November, 1938, that is to say:—

(a) articles of iron or steel of any of the following descriptions which, in the opinion of the Revenue Commissioners, are suitable for use in building construction and are not fabricated, that is to say:—

(i) angles,

(ii) channels,

(iii) girders,

(iv) joists,

(v) tees;

(b) articles of iron or steel which are, in the opinion aforesaid, of any of the following descriptions, that is to say:—

(i) squares,

(ii) flats,

(iii) hoop,

(iv) skelp,

(v) strip other than strip suitable for the manufacture of safety razor blades,

(vi) bars,

(vii) rods or rounds,

(viii) sheets,

(ix) plates,

(x) tinplates,

(xi) light rails not exceeding thirty pounds in weight per linear yard;

(c) galvanised corrugated iron or steel, whether worked or unworked.

(2) The duty imposed by this section, in so far as it is chargeable on articles mentioned in paragraph (c) of sub-section (1) of this section, is in lieu of the duty imposed by section 11 of the Finance Act, 1932 (No. 20 of 1932), and mentioned at reference number 30 in the First Schedule to that Act, and accordingly the said duty mentioned at the said reference number 30 shall not be charged or levied on any article imported on or after the 1st day of November, 1938.

(3) The duty imposed by this section shall not be charged or levied on any article which would, but for this sub-section, be chargeable with that duty and is shown, to the satisfaction of the Revenue Commissioners, to have been manufactured in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or in the Channel Islands, or in the Isle of Man, or in the Dominion of Canada and (in any case) to be comprised within one of the following classes or descriptions of articles, that is to say:—

(a) brassed strips; steel strips for manufacture of corsets; tempered steel lathing;

(b) cast steel sheets and plates for guillotine knives; mica steel sheets and plates; stainless steel sheets and plates;

(c) asphalt coated sheets and plates; bitumen coated sheets and plates; silver finish sheets and plates; stainless steel sheets and plates coated.

(4) The provisions of section 8 of the Finance Act, 1919 , shall apply to the duty imposed by this section with the substitution of the expression “the area of application of the Acts of the Oireachtas” for the expression “Great Britain and Ireland” and as though the articles chargeable with the said duty were mentioned in the Second Schedule to the said Act in the list of goods to which two-thirds of the full rate is made applicable as a preferential rate.

(5) Whenever the Minister for Finance, after consultation with the Minister for Industry and Commerce, so thinks proper, the Revenue Commissioners may by licence authorise any particular person, subject to compliance with such conditions as they may think fit to impose, to import without payment of the duty imposed by this section any articles chargeable with that duty either, as the Revenue Commissioners shall think proper, without limit as to time or quantity or either of them or within a specified time or in a specified quantity, but so that no such licence shall be exempt from the provisions of section 15 of the Finance (Agreement with United Kingdom) Act, 1938 (No. 12 of 1938).

(6) An article shall not be deemed for the purposes of this section to have been manufactured in any particular country unless such proportion of its value as is prescribed by regulations made under sub-section (1) of section 8 of the Finance Act, 1919 , for the purposes of that section is the result of labour within that country.