RADIO VALVE TAX.

Auckland Star, Issue 154, 2 July 1934, Page 9

RADIO VALVE TAX.

LICENSE FEE OF £150.

IMPORTERS AND MAKERS. All radio importers and manufacturers in the Dominion were required to-day to pay a license of £150 each. This was brought about by the establishment in Australian Courts of Law of the Australian Radio Technical Services and Patents Company, Limited, claim to the control of its patents in Australia and New Zealand. Just what effect this will have upon the price of radios sold from now on cannot be gauged with accuracy, but it is considered that prices in some instances will be increased by from £1 to £3. Where this takes place the purchaser will have to bear the extra cost. The license is to continue until December 31, 1938. The tax which is levied on all sets now sold will he 3/6 per cathode-anode stream, and operates upon the number of valve sockets in a set. The payment of £150 by the importer and manufacturer is a minimum payment for a license—if after the £150 has been covered in taxation on the valves, other sets are made or imported, the tax continues on the additional sets on a sliding scale. The holder of the license is prohibited from manufacturing valves, loudspeakers, or television receiving apparatus, and' from exporting or selling for export any broadcast receiving apparatus or radio-gramoph'me. In a case where a valve acts in a dual capacity, such as a push-pull class B amplifying valve or a combination oscillator and detector, the tax will be doubled. Highest Fee. It is said that the fee paid by listeners in New Zealand is the highest in the world, and the opinion is expressed by some traders that as the Government previously bore the tax it should continue to do so. At present the annual license fee for listeners is 30/, and of this 3/ goes to Amalgamated Wireless (Australia) for the use of its patent rights. What is going to happen to the 3/ at present paid' in royalties from the license fees is a point raised by traders, who are inclined to think it will disappear into the Consolidated Fund. In other parts of the world, ever since the inception of radios, manufacturers have had to pay royalties to patent holders, but it is only now that the group has established its claim to collect from users in New Zealand'. In the case of imported sets a royalty has in the past been paid to some patent holders, and it is contended that the latest tax is in the nature of a duplication. In order not to penalise the public who buy sets it is suggested that the Government should reduce the amount of the listeners' license fee to the extent of the 3/ formerly paid to patent holders. The onus of seeing that a license plate is on all sets sold from to-day is placed both upon the dealer and purchaser, who are each liable to prosecution for infringement.