TOBACCO.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 162, 11 July 1934, Page 9

TOBACCO.

| CIGARETTE DUTY REDUCED. SPECIAL TAX OX PAPERS. Changes in the import and excise duties on tobacco have been decided on by the Government. "Tobacco," said Mr. Coates in his statement, "is essentially a revenue item; the amount of duty collected thereon during 1933 was over" £1,000.000. The question as to the protection to be granted to the grower and manufacturer must be considered in relation to the revenue aspect. The Commission, in their report, draw attention to the relatively large loss of revenue due to the protection nominally granted to the grower on leaf tobacco, and it is evident that the rate is too high. The Government propose to reduce this protection by 1/ per pound and, so that the revenue may be safeguarded, to add an equivalent amount to the excise duties. The position with respect to cigarettes is that it was found some years ago that revenue was being lost through the admission of tobacco suitable for the manufacture of cigarettes at the same rate as ordinary pipe tobacco. To meet this difficulty it was decided in 1021 to impose on fine cut tobacco a rate of duty approximating that on cigarettes. Experience has since shown that this is ineffective, and it has been decided to abolish this distinction in tobacco duties and to substitute a special duty on cigarette papers at the rate of lid and lAd for every sixty papers under the British preferential and general tariffs respectively. At the same time it is intended to reduce the import duties on cigarettes by Id per packet of ten and to provide for a corresponding reduction i in tile excise duties. The protection, as such, granted to the manufacturer is considered to be satisfactory, and it is not proposed to make any reduction therein. . "The making of cigarette papers in Xew Zealand is not regarded as an) industry suited to the Dominion, and itj is intended to impose an excise duty thereon at the same rale as that under/ the British preferential tariff."