TAXATION, UNDER AN ALIAS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 39, 16 February 1943, Page 2

TAXATION, UNDER AN ALIAS

TWO minor abuses under the war damage insurance scheme are to be eliminated —the full premiums for broken parts of £100 and the double charge when the beginning and end of the premium period are in the same month but a year apart. The rankest injustice of all, the continuation of the charge at a uniform rate of 5/ in the £100, is. however confirmed. The Government was right in creating a fund for the repair of bomb and shell damage when the danger was believed to be imminent. It has been stated recently by Mr. Eraser himself that the risk is now very much less, but though the fund is already m credit to an amount, which calls for a heavy reduction in the premium no suggestion is ofticially made of granting any relief upon a rate which in many instances is far in excess of the tire insurance tariff, and. outside the congested centres of the cities, is at least equal to it. Maintenance of the five shilling rate is. under the circumstances, the equivalent of taking money by a subterfuge. The charge is really a thinlydisguised propertv tax imposed on the thrift of the home-maker and escaped by all who have no permanent stake in the country. In its sectional nature it is grossly unfair, but. it is a very easy—and costless, since the insurance companies collect it for the Government—way ot imposing another tax, which will take millions out. of the pockets of the house owner, and it will never be returned if peace be signed without a shilling being paid out for war damage. In common fairness there should be a statement of the amount collected and a suspension of collections until and unless some change in the Pacific war situation causes a revision of the current estimate of the Dominion's security.