Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the member on his intervention in this debate on Bill C-9. I want to add some clarification.
If I understood the member's statement correctly the GST revenue was somewhat less than $15 billion and after expenses it really contributed none.
In fact in terms of gross collections by the government the GST contributed some $29.5 billion. However, that was reduced by the $10.7 billion which the government paid in rebates, particularly to exporters because the input credits exceeded the taxes collected on their sales to non exports. That was further reduced by the rebates paid to schools, municipalities, et cetera which generally get about a 50 per cent refund of GST paid. Finally, there was a deduction of some $2.5 billion which was paid to low and middle income Canadians as a GST credit. Therefore, on a net basis after all those expenses the GST revenue to the government was $14.9 billion for the year ended March 31, 1993.
Having said all that we certainly do know the federal sales tax collected some $18 billion net. The GST has been a less efficient tax in terms of generating revenues for the government. Right now the finance committee has been working diligently looking into alternatives for replacing the GST to make sure there is efficiency and equity within our taxation system.
I raise those points for the member to ensure there is no misconception by Canadians on the present state of affairs.