Price reticence defended

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32540, 25 February 1971, Page 2

Price reticence defended

(New Zealand Press Association) WESTPORT, February 24. Nothing would be gained by publishing items and increases authorised under the pricejustification scheme, the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr Shelton) said today.

He had been asked to comment on the widespread criticism of his decision not to make the information available. Mr Shelton said his department was fully engaged in ensuring that the scheme worked smoothly, and a great deal of extra work was involved for the staff as it was. Apart from what he considered to be the Impracticability of the proposal, the Minister thought it unfair to disclose to competitors what new prices would be. In any case, he doubted if an increase in the price of building blocks in a part of Manawatu would be of much interest to people in Auckland or Dunedin. Manufacturers and producers who kept prices down would be tempted to increase them if information about competitors was made available. If consumers considered that prices for items which

qualified under the scheme had been raised without authority they were free to bring them to the attention of his department, which would investigate them. The Minister said a lot of the criticism was coming from the ■C.A.R.P. organisation, but he wondered how many consumers that group represented. He had also noticed that the Public Service Association was supporting C.A.R.P.’s stand, but again he wondered how many members of that big organisation had been consulted. “Just what proportion of the P.S.A. actually supports the decision?" he asked. Asked to comment on suggestions that trade unions wanted the information to serve as guidelines for wage increase applications, Mr Shelton replied: “If they want details about price trends they can get them from the Statistics Department.”