EMERGENCYPETROL TAX ‘PERMANENT’

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32120, 16 October 1969, Page 24

EMERGENCYPETROL TAX ‘PERMANENT’

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, October 15. Mini-Budget emergency petrol tax increases of 1967 would become permanent under the Transport Amendment (No. 2) Bill, Parliament was told today.-

Labour’s finance spokesman, Mr R. J. Tizard (Pakuranga), said during the bill’s second reading debate that by switching 2.3 c a gallon of the petrol tax from the consolidated revenue account to the National Roads Board, the Government was making the taxation permanent.

The bill retroactively enacts from April 1 the Budget

undertaking to transfer the tax to the board. Mr Tizard said that all transport taxation should be used for roads, but it was going into the Consolidated Fund to be used for any purpose. Other emergency taxation unaffected by the bill would also remain—and Mr Tizard challenged the Government to deny that, although the emergency was over, the taxation would remain.

The bill also contains a provision exempting from licensing requirements far-

mers’ trucks with a payload of five tons.

A provision will be written into the bill during its committee stages for the urban bus passenger transport subsidy announced by the Government last month, and which will cost about $415,000 by the end of next March. Speaking earlier, Mr L. W. Gandar (Nat., Manawatu) pointed out that since 1955 the number of vehicles on New Zealand roads had doubled, and it would double again by the mid-1980s. This growth had, and would, create problems for the National Roads Board, which would have to spend money on maintenance for roads not constructed for the weight and volume of traffic experienced. Another area of finance that would require attention was the provision of roads through difficult scenic areas as the tourist industry grew. Back Country

Mr A. D. Dick (Nat., Waitaki) said he hoped the Minister would give an assurance that an increased amount of N.R.B. money would go to back-country reading. Mr A. J. Faulkner (Lab., Roskill) said there was a growing practice by the Government to increase taxation under all kinds of guises. “If the emergency is over and our balance-of-payments difficulties are over, then let’s get rid of emergency taxes, not write them into the permanent taxation of the country,” he said. Mr M. A. Connelly (Lab., Riccarton) joined other Labour speakers in criticising the Government for making a temporary taxation measure permanent.

Few taxes, he said, had a greater effect on the whole economy than petrol tax, and any movement in the cost of petrol affected the cost of living.