Tyre duty angers

Press, 9 December 1976, Page 17

Tyre duty angers

*PA Wellington, j Road-transport operators are angry about a 40 .per cent import duty on •steel-cord tyres. ’ The duty was gazetted •on November 26. Rumours •of the Gazette notices circulated within the tans•port world last week, but <were not officially confirmed until Tuesday.

• Steel-cord tyres are ’used for most New ZeaJand long-distance and •heavy-load haulage. On a TlOOO x 20 tyre, used for .most trucks or buses, the •new regulation increases ’the duty from $4.49 to 4"8.40.

• The tyres are not manufactured in New Zealand,

and transport sources say there is no likelihood of this happening. The imported tyres are preferred because they are not prone to punctures, and because they stand up to heavy wear.

The 40 per cent rate applies to certain sizes of tyres which are available in New Zealand. If a corresponding size is unavailable in this country, the rate is 10 per cent. The duty is placed on the current domestic value of the tyre in its country of origin. The tyres are also subject to a 20 per cent sales tax.

Imported tyres were previously subject to a

duty of $12.85 per 100 kg of tyres.

The Road Transport Association is upset by the application of the duty, which was set after a Tariff and Development Board hearing in 1974. The president of the New Zealand Road Transport Association (Mr I. R. Pheloung) said the Customs Department tariff represented a “lack of communication and a lack of appreciation of the consequences.”

Mr Pheloung said he was disappointed that the Government had not consulted the transport industry when formulating the tariff.

There was no way the industry could absorb the cost of the duty. One of the association’s members had landed a container of steel-cord tyres this month and found the duty had risen from $420 to $7002, he said. Mr Pheloung called the 40 per cent duty “inflationary.” Users of the imported tyres could not recover the increased cost because of the price freeze.