CHEMICAL SUBSIDY TO START TODAY

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32072, 21 August 1969, Page 15

CHEMICAL SUBSIDY

TO START TODAY

The subsidy scheme on herbicides and pesticides announced in the Budget at the end of June will come into effect today.

The actual prices of these materials to the fanner are still not definitely known because the Price Tribunal has not yet completed its deliberations. A Department ot Agriculture spokesman in Wellington said it was expected that this would mean some delay in farmers being invoiced for their purchases but it was not thought that this would be very long. Few cash sales will be made under the terms of the scheme and while these are made it is expected that retailers will be prepared to allow a credit after the Price Tribunal announcement of prices to farmers for subsidised products. The department spokesman said the scheme was being introduced now to enable the farmer to receive the benefit of the subsidy as early as possible.

STOCK-TAKING Retailers were asked to take stock last evening of their holdings of some 500 products on the list coming under the subsidy scheme. They will be

required to make a statutory declaration as to the correctness of these stocks. These lists will then be held awaiting more instructions. Sul> sequently they will be asked to send claims for subsidy on stocks held to the proprietors of the products, who will in turn claim on the Department of Agriculture. The scheme will be restricted to the sale of not less than one gallon of liquid or 51b of solids, to eliminate the home gardener. The scheme will not be retrospective and will not apply to stocks held by spraying contractors as there is no price control on contractor’s services, but they will be expected to pass on the benefits to farmers when they buy new supplies of chemicals at cheaper rates. Materials excluded from the scheme include those containing aldrin, D.D.D., D.D.T., dieldrin, endosultan, endrin or lindane. Retail trade interests say

that since the Budget announcement trade in chemicals likely to be affected by the scheme has come to a virtual standstill as farmers, awaiting the implementation of the scheme, have limited their purchases to only essential requirements. The scheme, in general, applies to herbicides and pesticides used for the control of scrub, weeds and insect pests in pastures, crops and drains. According to the Budget announcement the subsidy would be equivalent to 50 per cent of the exfactory price of the chemicals concerned.