Price control to stay on gas

Press, 15 April 1986, Page 8

Price control to stay on gas

PA Wellington Price control on natural gas at both the wholesale and retail level will continue when the Commerce Act, 1985, comes into effect on May 1, says the Minister of Energy, Mr Tizard.

Existing price controls had not inhibited the rapid expansion of the gas sector and did not appear to have caused any significant distortion of energy markets, Mr Tizard said yesterday. “While removal of price control on gas is desirable, this can only come to pass when realistic competition clearly can occur.”

There was no guarantee that the interests of consumers would be safe-

guarded if price controls on natural gas were removed in the present environment. However, Mr Tizard said price control would be lifted on the manufactured gas supplied in Dunedin and Invercargill when the new act came into force.

“The Government, before coming to this decision, received submissions from the gas supply companies and their major users,” he said. A number of submissions tended to support the Government’s view that gas wholesaling and retailing was a monopoly, with little evidence of potential competition from other energy forms, Mr Tizard said.