Economic statistic of the week: how much different sectors pay in tax

Chapter 4 of Britain at the Polls 2010 brings this tax perspective:

From the early 1990s the City had sought to justify light-touch regulation and tax concessions by listing the many socio-economic benefits of finance … The most persistent of the City’s claims was that tax revenues from finance were a key source of funding for New Labour’s social programmes. But … over the 5 years from 2002 to 2007, tax receipts from finance totalled £153 billion and averaged just 6.7 per cent of government receipts. In the same period, manufacturing employed many more workers, who all paid taxes under strict pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) rules, so that this sector delivered twice as much tax revenue.