Price-freeze regs loopholes closed

Press, 14 June 1983, Page 6

Price-freeze regs loopholes closed

PA Wellington Price freeze regulations have been changed so that traders cannot avoid the freeze by altering slightly the size, packaging, or presentation of a product. The changes, gazetted yesterday, follow legal hitches in court actions against traders.

The new regulations include stronger definitions to prevent traders making the minor alterations.

The assistant secretary of Commerce at the Department of Trade and Industry, Mr Peter Donovan, said there had been some problems of enforcement. They involved cases before the courts or proposed to go to court, Mr Donovan said. Asked whether some cases had failed because the regulations were not tight enough in this regard, he said: “Some cases are under consideration where this is a factor.”

Mr Donovan said he would not say there were Widespread attempts to evade the regulations, but that there were a “few problems in bringing cases.”

The new regulations make it clear that minor changes to products do not enable price rises. The freeze was extended to February 29, 1984, in the gazetted changes. The Minister of Housing, Mr Friedlander, also an-

nounced full details of the new rent-freeze regulations, which will take effect from June 14.

The regulations will “strictly limit” the number of applications for any change in a present rental to “those few cases where a landlord can clearly prove that he or she has suffered severa hardship since the introduction of the freeze,” said Mr Friedlander.

It was now possible, where a landlord and tenant mutually agreed, to increase a rental when improvements have been made to a property which significantly increased the services or amenities, he said. All requests for a rent increase must be submitted to the Director-General of Housing for approval. The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Templeton, announced the changes which extend and modify the price freeze. Some changes had been made to “clarify points of interpretation.”

One amendment makes it clear that the freeze overrides contractual arrangements that are in conflict with it, and provides that any money paid in excess of the prices allowed under the freeze is recoverable by the purchaser.

The courts have been empowered, in the event of a conviction for an offence, to order refunds of the excess money paid.

The hardship provisions have been reviewed and the Ppricing Authority has been given a discretion to allow traders, such as manufacturers and suppliers of services, to recover relief granted under the hardship and anomaly provisions. Four new exemptions have been made. Two of these are designed to permit the Apple and Pear Board and the Dairy Board to pay out increased export returns to producers. These exemptions will not allow increased prices to be charged to consumers in New Zealand for milk or apples and pears. Another exemption is to allow actors and musicians engaged by the Broadcasting Corporation to receive the equivalent of a wage increase already being lawfully paid to other actors and musicians.

A further exemption has been made to allow services sold by auction to be exempt. This will enable services such as livestock stud servicing fees to be auctioned without infringing the regulations. Goods sold at auction are already exempt. Mr Templeton said that no significant departures had been made from the price freeze. The changes made in matters of interpretation and enforcement were evidence of the Government’s “determination to maintain an effective hold on prices until the end of February.”