Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for his comment. Indeed, I was referring to GST revenue, which was something like $13 billion or $14 billion, give or take a billion or a billion and a half.
This tax brings in between $13 and $15 billion annually. This is more or less what I wanted to point out regarding Bill C-9, namely that the government should conduct cost benefit analyses or more in-depth studies before creating new taxes, and that it should also eliminate loopholes. I am not strictly referring to
tax loopholes, but also to all those exceptions which are made whenever a new levy or tax is implemented.
Of course, the government wants those taxes to be the least regressive possible. Reductions and exceptions are provided for the poorest individuals or households. In this case, I think you mentioned the figure of $17 billion for GST related credits to exporters, and 50 per cent of the GST for schools and hospitals. If you eliminate all that and add the cost of the administrative work done to collect the tax, you end up with $14.9 billion when, as you rightly pointed out, that tax initially brings in $29.5 billion. Therefore, once all the exceptions have been taken into account, the tax does not even bring in 50 per cent of what was originally expected. Indeed, we start with an amount of $30 billion and, once all those exceptions have been taken into account, we are left with $14.9 billion. And we are told that the previous federal tax, which did not have all these exceptions, used to bring in $18 billion.
So, all these efforts were made to create a new tax which, in the end, brings in $3 or $4 billion less in revenue. What I am saying is that before implementing a new tax measure or a new federal tax to replace the GST, some in-depth analyses and studies must be done to try to eliminate administrative costs to businesses.
This $14.9 billion which we are left with in the end does not even take into account the efforts made by businesses to collect the tax by using new accounting techniques and computer systems. We are told that the previous tax used to bring in $18 billion. However, the economy must be considered as a whole: if the government is not paying, then it is businesses, and the latter paid several billion to implement this tax; it is hard to figure out exactly how much, but it could be somewhere between $5 and $10 billion. So, in the end, we are maybe talking about $7 or $8 billion in revenue for the government. Indeed, there may be only $4 or $5 billion left in the end. So, all these efforts were made to replace a tax which used to bring in four or five times more in revenue. Consequently, we must really be careful and conduct more in-depth analyses before implementing a new tax.