Roads Board Mystified By Petrol Revenue Drop

Press, Volume CI, Issue 30004, 13 December 1962, Page 8

Roads Board Mystified By Petrol Revenue Drop

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, December 12. Although unforeseen fluctuations in petrol consumption this year have caused hasty reassessments of the amount of money available for works in the various road districts, members of the National Roads Board confessed this afternoon that they had no idea what caused the fluctuations. After a marked drop in petrol revenue from April to August this year, there was a sharp recovery. In October almost 2i million gallons more petrol was sold than was sold in October, 1961. It was because of this that the allocations for the second sixmonth period of the current year were “let out” by £525.695. “We cannot account for the petrol sales being so l.v earlier this year,” said the secretary of the board (Mr C. N. Johnston) this afternoon. The Minister of Works (Mr Goosman), chairman of the board: I think this might be

related in some way to the use of the premium grade of petrol.

Mr A. O. Glasse (Municipalities): I do not see any connexion. As far as premium petrol is concerned, surely people are still using it Figures produced to the board today show that in the eight-month period from April 1 to the end of last month, the amount of taxation received by the board from petrol was £12,418,995, compared with £12,712,894 for the corresponding period of the previous year. Comparative figures for the last eight months, with the figures for the corresponding month of 1961 in parenthesis, are as follows: April, £1,420,377 (£1,659,254); May, £1,582,399 (£1,691,576); June, £1382,043 (£1300,757); July, £1,594.054 (£1,415,055); August. £1392378 (£1,618,420); September, £1,539.434 (£1.558,446); October. £1,812359 (£1,597,112); November, £1,696,051 (£1,672374). Customs Explanation A Customs Department official said that the oil companies’ duty payments for the last week of September had been credited to the October period as they were received after the revenue cash book had been closed off on Friday, September 28. This ac-

counted for £453,400. which normally would have appeared in the . September figures. The duty is collected as a weekly sales tax paid on estimated sales with an adjustment each month to match the tax with actual sales. The weekly sales in March were over-estimated so. when the monthly adjustment was made, the companies were repaid £169,000 in April During September, the companies over-paid tax according to actual sales of £109.000. This remained to the credit of the period and meant that the apparent net loss of revenue between April and September was £60.000. A further difference in the revenue account is the result of a change in measuring gallonage. Previously. the volume of petrol sold was corrected to volume at a temperature of 60deg F. In the new collection system no correction is made. During the winter, w’hen temperatures can be below 60deg. the smaller volume because of lower temperatures has been estimated to account for a loss of £60,000 in tax. In ti e summer, when temperatures are above 60deg, this deficiency is likely to be more than off-set because of the greater volume of the fuel sales under these conditions. It has been estimated that the greater consumption of petrol during the holiday period will mean a gain greater than the winter loss of £60,000. The total apparent deficiency explained by these accounting and collecting details is £573.000. But in fact, over the whole year, it is not expected that there will be any loss at all, probably a gain.