PRICE CONTROL BILL

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25321, 22 October 1947, Page 6

PRICE CONTROL BILL

SUBMISSIONS MADE TO COMMITTEE VIEWS OF TRADERS ANI MANUFACTURERS (P.A.) WELLINGTON, October 11. “Price control has to some exten created the shortages with which th, present Control of Prices Bill at tempts to deal by further intensifying price control,” said the secretary o the Associated Chambers of Com merce (Mr A. O. Heany) to-day ji submissions to the Industries am Commerce Committee of the House o Representatives on the provisions n the bill. Mr Heany said that if a policy o encouraging production were pursue as vigorously as an attempt to dea with the situation by restriction, Zealand would the sooner reach ; position where the free operation o prices set by competition would pro vide an automatic guide to productioi and a regulator of consumption. The bill if passed should be opera tive for a limited period and thi scope of the tribunal’s authorit should be reduced progressively witi a view to its ultimate elimination said Mr Heany. He objected ti traders having to produce eeeount and balance-sheets as their produc tion would mean that the tribunal while ostensibly fixing the sail prices, would actually be acting as i profit control authority. When profit arose from efficiency, then contro would penalise efficiency. “Many present shortages are due ti the fact that the price allowed make manufacture unprofitable,” said M Heany. fl Associate Members “We see no good reason for the ap pointment of associate members, o whom unlimited numbers may be ap pointed. Associate members are re quired to have no qualifications ex cept the time and willingness to ac as official snoopers and amateur in vestigators into the affairs, books, an< records of any business firm. Th; C revisions regarding associate mem ers of entirely unknown quantity ar repugnant ana smack of the method which typify the totalitarian polin state.” . The powers necessary for the opera tion of a properly constituted tri bunal should be granted only to quali fied permanent officers, said Mr Heany and the provisions for associate mem bers should be struck out. At the mos associate members should be confinec to one representative of consumer and one of distributors, but the] should be shorn of the powers in thi bill. Mr Heany objected to public hear ings as a general rule on the ground that they would cause the withholding of confidential information. Mr Heany suggested that then should be a formula on which price were to be determined. The penalties were too drastic, sail Mr Heany. who advocated leaving th< penalty to the discretion of the Court “Some Control Necessary” In answer to a question, Mr Heanj said he would not favour dispensing with price control, as prices wouli skyrocket; some control was neces sary while shortages existed. The time control should last depended ot the measures taken to increase produc tion and equate the supply of good with the supply of money. “The New Zealand Manufacturers Federation has so far agreed with the principle of the necessity for price con trol,” said the secretary of the federa tion (Mr D. I. Macdonald) in his sub missions. That did not mean that the federation accepted the need for prict control as a permanent feature. Tht federation was alarmed at the bill’s intention to create another permanen Government department to contro prices. As individual industries re turned to a normal state of competitior they should be freed from the onerous restrictions of price control. The Government had frequently stated that its polioy was to revoke controls as soor as possible. Mr Macdonald said the bill shouk contain a clause making it operative for a specified term, say one year, subject to annual review and necessary modification or renewal by Parliamenl at the end of that and subsequent peridUs. Independence of Tribunal Mr Macdonald said the tribunal should be placed on a completely independent and judicial footing without dictation from the Government oi other bodies. If price control was to be continued there should be provision in the toil’ for the activities of the Price Tribuna to be decentralised, to the extent a' least that district officers should b( empowered to make decisions on routine applications, said Mr Macdonald after referring to the long delays thai occurred at present. All possible mean! of speeding up the handling of appli cationc should be used. Mr Macdonald objected to the pro vision that accounts and balance-sheet! should be produced because if confi dential documents were available Government . departments they coul( be»oerused by unauthorised persons. Mr Macdonald said that the averagi penalty had been about £5 10s and i was now proposed that the minimuii should be £5O for an individual anc £250 for a company. Mr Macdonald said the salient pointi were: the bill should fix a definite time for the operation of price control, subject to review at the end of tha period and renewal for a furthei period only if necessary; the need fo: a numerically small tribunal whic! was absolutely free from dictation o; direction by any outside party anc against whose decisions there shouk be the right of appeal to a highei Court; that for so long as price con trol was to continue the act should b< binding on what was probably th< largest single unit engaged in the pro vision of goods and services and wnosi charges affected every citizen, namel] the Crown.