Comalco Agreement
Sir, —Mr Hanan says that, though electricity may be sold to Comalco at (or below?) cost, the taxpayer would gain. Mr Hanan cannot,, however, be sure that Comalco makes its profits in New Zealand and not in other countries with lower taxation. By charging for raw materials at sufficiently high prices Comalco can make its profit in Australia or elsewhere and run, if it likes, the New Zealand- branch at a nominal profit or a loss. Oil companies are known to indulge in these practices and the New Zealand Commissioner of Taxes has at present 600 companies “many of them internationally based” being investigated for tax evasion. On the other hand, if we reduce company tax to lowest overseas levels (as some advocate) so as to induce overseas companies to make their profits here, taxpayers will lose much more than they gain. Benefit, if any, will come mainly from the repercussions of the new industry not so much from Comalco itself.—Yours, etc., W. ROSENBERG. November 21, 1966.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19661123.2.150.4
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31224, 23 November 1966, Page 20
Word Count
169Comalco Agreement Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31224, 23 November 1966, Page 20
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.