Minister On Sales Tax.

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31943, 21 March 1969, Page 1

Minister On Sales Tax.

(N.Z. Press Association)

AUCKLAND, March 20.

The Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) would send a party of experts to study retail sales tax in the United States if the Municipal Association and the Counties’ Association favoured the idea.

Mr Muldoon said this tonight at a meeting of about 50 Auckland local body Mayors and councillors. The meeting was held to discuss ways of raising local body finance. He said also that before a turnover tax such as that proposed by the Auckland Regional Authority was introduced he would want to see a referendum of people in the region. As proposed at a meeting of the authority last Friday the turnover tax scheme was “full of fish hooks,” said the

minister.. The tax envisaged is about one-tenth of one per cent of firms’ total turnover in the Auckland region. It is designed to produce an initial slom a year for regional development. The Government had to consider this kind of scheme

because of the finance problem facing local bodies in

Auckland. Mr Muldoon said he had spent some time thinking the tax suggestion through. “If you have something simple which can apply across the board that's all right. You know what it’s going to be levied on and you have a rough idea of what it’s going to bring in. “But I don’t think this can be levied across the board without exceptions and from the moment you except something you’re in trouble. There is no person here who would agree with one other person on the exact range of exemptions, so you are in trouble immediately.” Mr Muldoon said he personally would not wish to see the turnover tax applied to food. “Not Simple” “I am not just writing off the original proposal,” he said. “What I’m saying is that it’s not as simple as some people might think. “If you can get something that is the considered opinion of the local body people in Auckland the Government will consider it very seriously indeed.

“But my feeling is that before an additional tax of this nature is imposed the Government at least would want to see a referendum of the people in the region.”