SOME BIG INCREASES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 173, 24 July 1930, Page 10

SOME BIG INCREASES.

ELECTRIC LIGHT BULBS

A RISE OF FIFTY PEE, CENT,

"It will come as a surprise to some people to learn that in one or two cases the Forbes tariff has increased the duty on imported articles by 50 per cent," said a city importer this morning. To illustrate his point tne merchant quoted the ease of electric light bulbs subject to the general tariff. Formerly the tariff on bulbs exceeding 8 watts and not exceeding 80 watts, the ones most commonly used, was 6d, plus a primage duty of 2 per cent. Under the new scale the tariff was entered at 7Ad, plus a surtax of nine-fortieths of the duty. Thus the duty on these bulbs has been increased from a fraction over 6d to 9 3-16 d, a rise which works out at over 50 per cent. In regard to wireless, sets in cabinets, wireless parts, elctric appliances such as heaters, irons, and stoves, manufactured articles of metal, and numerous other items, he said, the change in the general tariff had resulted in an increase of approximately one-third. For goods enjoying the British preferential tariff, on which the duty had not been advanced, but on which the surtax had been substituted for the primage duty the increase in the duty in most cases was about one-fifth.