Table vehicle for criticism of tax

Press, 16 January 1985, Page 4

Table vehicle for criticism of tax

Parliamentary reporter The humble coin-operated pool table became a vehicle for an attack on the proposed goods and, services tax from a National Party backbencher, Sir Robert Muldoon, last evening. Addressing the Orewa Rotary Club in his annual “state of the nation” address, Sir Robert asserted that the Government had not thought through the effects of its goods and services tax — or “V.A.T.” as he persisted in calling it. When Parliament rose in December, he said, it was clear from questioning of departmental officials that the Government departments were a long way from understanding precisely what they were going to do. “Many vital decisions had still to be made, and some had not even been ad-

dressed,” Sir Robert said. Predicting that the tax would apply to goods and services as diverse as transport fares and freights, local body rates, including the cost of tap-water, lawyers, doctors and accountants’ fees, and sharebrokers’ commissions, he rounded on the pool table. “A curious problem, one of many, and one which the Minister (Mr Douglas) was unable to give an answer to, arises in the case of coinoperated machines,” Sir Robert said. In some cases, change was given with the product. In other cases, like video games, the length of the game could be shortened. “But in many cases this kind of approach is not possible, an example being a coin-operated pool table, where the length of the game is determined by the time it takes to sink all the

balls,” he said. “In these cases, if a 10 per cent value-added tax is applied, and the method of collecting would be to take one-eleventh of the gross turnover, then the only way the proprietor can go is to increase the price of the game by adjusting the machine to take the next largest coin or, alternatively, another coin. “This will mean that there will be very substantial percentage price increases.” Exempting export goods from the tax also presented problems. A farmer did not know in many cases where his products were destined when they left his hands. “How then can he calculate and account for the tax?

“This is just a very small sample of the problems that are going to arise as we get to grips with this tax this year.”