Govt. Action To Reduce Import Licence Delays

Press, Volume C, Issue 29679, 24 November 1961, Page 14

Govt. Action To Reduce Import Licence Delays

(New Zealand Press ' Association) WELLINGTON, November 23. The Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) said tonight he would take “personal action” tomorrow to obtain 30 extra staff to deal with issue of import licences. He told the House of Representatives there were thousands of licences not yet dealt with.

“It isn’t every officer who can deal with this sort of thing, and I think there was a total of more than a quarter of a million licences to be handled.” The Prime Minister made the statement in the absence of the Minister of Customs (Mr Marshall), who left Wellington tonight for a G.A.T.T. conference in Geneva.

Mr Holyoake was replying to Mr N E Kirk (Opposition. Lyttelton), who claimed manufacturers were being “almost driven up the wall” with delays. Mr Kirk was querying £7OOO for overtime for the Customs Department in the Supplementary Estimates. He said additional money had been voted in the Budget towards the department acquiring more staff. “And I want to know if the Minister has been successful in obtaining extra staff to overcome the frustrating, maddening. souldestroying delays that there are in getting import licences.

“It is becoming a very serious matter in Christchurch industry. The same applies in Dunedin, and the position is even worse in Auckland

“Manufacturers tell me these are the worst delays thev have ever had Many are at their wit’s end It *akes weeks and weeks before thev hear anything." “Not Exaggerated” Mr Holyoake said Mr Kirk was not exaggerating at all The “tragedy” had been the granting of additional import licences shortly before the las’ election Mr A H Nordmeyer (Opposition Island Bay) said many millions of pounds worth of goods had come into the country which should never have done so "They should have been checked Whv weren’t they?” “Earlier this session I indicated in the course of the Address-in-Renly debate that the Prime Minister had access to all the figures of the

previous Government which justified the issue of extra import licences. “I challenged him to produce them,” Mr Nordmeyer said. “But he hasn’t.” Mr B. E. Taiboys (Government, Wallace) said the department had endeavoured to administer the policy as laid down. “But .he ‘R’ scheme, as introduced by the Labour Government, opened the field to anyone who could arrange letters of credit with the bank,” he said. "In some fields there are literally millions of pounds worth of licences out and as far as we can see, unused. And they stand as a contingent liability against the fund.”

Mr Taiboys said every endeavour was being made to have all the licences under the 1961 schedule issued this week and in the hands of licensees next week.

Mr W. A. Fox (Opposition. Miramar) said that had the Government wished to correct the position, it could have done so. Mr Taiboys: Nonsense. Mr Fox: Now the Government says we have over-im-

ported by £6O million and no action was taken for the first seven months. Dinner sets at £4OO and canned oysters and strawberries are being imported while manufacturers go short of steel. Mr Taiboys: Who issued the licences? Mr Fox: The Government would prefer to see something happen which they could blame on the previous Government for political purposes.

Mr R. D. Muldoon (Government, Tamaki) said stocks were up £3O million at the end of the fl-st six months of the year. The licences “let loose” by the Labour Government before going out of office had caused the difficulty. Mr A. J. Faulkner (Opposition, Roskill) said manufacturers felt the Government was dragging its feet on applications for licences for raw materials. The Government admitted that millions of pounds’ worth of licences were still unused. The people who needed raw materials waited weeks and weeks for replies, but they could not maintain full employment without raw materials.