N.Z. Hotel Workers Seek Reduction In Liquor Tax

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28836, 5 March 1959, Page 10

N.Z. Hotel Workers Seek Reduction In Liquor Tax

(Hew Zealand Press Association)

NEW PLYMOUTH, March 4. Lower beer prices must be ensured if the tax on liquor were reduced as a result of representations to be made by the New Zealand Hotel, Hospital, Restaurant, and Related Trades Association of Workers, said the national secretary of the association (Mr F. Young) tonight Beer would be a penny a glass cheaper if the Government removed part or all of the sales tax, leaving an excise tax which alone amounted to 6s a gallon of beer, he said.

Opinion at the association's biennial conference at New Plymouth today favoured a strong protest to the Government regarding excessive liquor and tobacco taxes introduced last year, said Mr Young. The section of the community least able to afford it was being taxed unfairly. The remedy was to establish an economic price for beer under present conditions, and then to reduce or remove the sales tax. This reduction must then be passed direct to the consumer Hotelkeepers would obtain a fair profit and the public would pay a reasonable price for beer. Customer resistance to higher prices had made itself felt throughout the hotel trade, placing the hotels in a very bad economic position, he said. Accommodation losses could not be recovered from liquor sales at present. “It costs the average hotel more than 8d to put a glass of beer on the bar.” said Mr Young. Unreliable production figures for beer, based on the excise tax levied at the breweries, were

misleading the public, said Mr • Young. These inflated figures re- . suited from a switch in production to- beers of higher alcohol content, retailed' in pint bottles, ! on which a much higher tax rate , was levied. Bottled beer could . be stored for a considerable time, ’ he added. Therefore production ' figures obtained in this way did not represent the true level of . beer consumption.