Decimal Milk Price

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31221, 19 November 1966, Page 14

Decimal Milk Price

Sir,—Rising costs and taxation are worrying many today. Milk, now 4jd a pint, will most likely be 4 cents, representing an increase of a farthing a pint. On a low estimate we consume 2 million pints a day. A farthing a pint on this amounts to just £2083 a day, or £14,581 a week. For a year it reaches the colossal sum of £758,812, yet it is suggested by politicians that under decimal currency prices will not increase much. What about this handsome “extra” profit to all milk treatment boards?— Yours, etc., LIGHTHOUSE. November 11, 1966. [Mr J. N. Searle, secretary of the Decimal Currency Board, replies: “‘Lighthouse’ throws no light on the subject. If milk is 4 cents, this is 4.8 d compared with 4.75 d or 4Jd, so the difference is not a farthing, it is .05 or onetwentieth of a penny increase. Now if bread becomes 6c or 7.2 d, compared with 7]d or 7.5 d, there is a decrease of ,3d, so the consumer will not really be affected at all. If anything he will gain. The producer boards or agencies selling these items will also not be affected, since they are subsidised. The subsidy will be adjusted so that there will be neither loss nor gain.”]