HIGHER PRICES ALLOWED

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27206, 25 November 1953, Page 12

HIGHER PRICES ALLOWED

Goods Subject To Control RESULT OF WAGE INCREASE

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, November 24. Permission will be given for most manufacturers still subject to price control to adjust their prices sufficiently to recover qp to threequarters of the increased wage cost resulting from the decision of the Arbitration Court.

A price order to give authority for this will be published in this week’s Gazette, and will apply to all goods except those which are listed as exceptions to the order. The prices of the goods listed specially may be increased only after application is made to the Price Control Division and authority is given in the usual way. Making this announcement tonight, the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr J. T. Watts) said that as in the case of previous substantial cost increases the Price Tribunal had decided to take special action to avoid the difficulties which manufacturers might experience if they had to await the result of applications before recovering any of the increased costs in their prices. This was particularly so because of the retrospective feature of the present wage increase.

An essential feature of the automatic recovery procedure, and one which traders would be well advised to follow, was the requirement that any increases made under the price order should be notified to the Director of Price Control within 14 days. Unless this were done the automatic procedure would be imperilled for further use. On the last occasion, said the Minister, many manufacturers failed to send the necessary notification. Distributive Trades

Mr Watts said that no special provision had been made for the distributive trades. It was felt that the application of percentage mark-ups to higher costing goods would generally provide adequate recovery, as had been the case in the past. If there were hardship in a particular case an application could, of course, be lodged. Mr Watts appealed to manufacturers whose goods were on the list to which the general authority did not apply, and who wished to increase their prices, to lodge applications promptly. He realised that the proximity of Christmas might cause difficulty in some cases, and if applications were delayed it might mean that they had to be held over until after the holidays. Manufacturers who wanted quick decisions would be wise to put in their applications promptly. “The Price Tribunal and the Government realise the necessity of reaching a decision at the earliest possible date on these matters, and it is for this reason that the present course is being followed.” he said.

The Minister said that the procedure he had outlined had been adopted after discussions with manufacturing and other trading interests.