INCREASE IN TAX ON TOBACCO

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14516, 10 November 1947, Page 3

INCREASE IN TAX ON TOBACCO

NATURE OF MEANS TEST

Legislation Attacked By Mr Doidge

No Saving In Dollars, Says Opposition

(Special To Times) Wellington, Nov. 9

“Those who have listened to the debate will be amazed at the failure and the futility of the efforts made by Government speakers to justify the increase in the tax on tobacco,” said Mr F. W. Doidge (National, Tauranga), speaking, in the House of Representatives, on the second reading of the Customs Acts Amendment Bill. Three Ministers had spoken. They had all stressed that the purpose of the increase in taxation was to save dollars and they all affirmed that the tax in operation would mean a reduction in the quantity of- tobacco smoked; but not a speaker on the other side of the House had succeeded in disproving the Opposition’s contention that not a dollar would be saved and that not one ounce of tobacco less would be smoked.

The legislation was simply bringing into operation something in the nature of a means test, and all knew how the man in the street hated the suggestion of a means tost. “Yet here, by this legislation, we put into operation a proviso by which the rich man will get more tobacco,” he added. “The Minister of Internal Affairs pleaded that he hoped the people would not regard this tax as an attack upon smokers, and the Minister of Industries and Commerce asked whether it would afford the Government any pleasure to impose this tax,” continued Mr Doidge. “We, oh this side of the House, say ‘yes’ because the four Ministers who have spoken on this measure so far are all non-smokers. I think I know the habits of the fourteen Ministers in this House very well, and I think I am right in saying that only two Ministers out of 14 do smoke. Personally, I think they are’ no much interested in smokers.” The Minister claimed that in operation the tax would result .in saving dollars by reducing consumption of tobacco, but in the same speech, when he introduced the.resolutions, he declared that the imposition of the tax was going to bring in increased revenue to the extent of £700,000 a year. One claim obviously cut right across the other, and he could not have it both ways.

“If the Minister wants to achieve his purpose, there is one way of doing so, and that is not by bringing down legislation of this kind under the guise of aiding Britain, but by coming forward with a straightforward proposition,” emphasised Mr Doidge. “Let him say to us, ‘We must save dollars to aid Britain, and the only way to do it, so far as tobacco is concerned, is to limit importations.’ Then, we would all be in the same box. That course is still open to him.”