GAS COMPANIES' BURDEN

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 54, 12 September 1928, Page 13

GAS COMPANIES' BURDEN

UNFAIR COMPETITION LOCAL BODIES' TRADING (Nineteen Twenty-Eight Committee.) For some years past the gas companies of New Zealand have been suffering a grave injustice from the intrusion of municipal concerns and electric power boards upon their spheres of activity under conditions which give the intruders flagrantly unfair advantages Without conferring any corresponding benefit upon the State or the public. Whilo the privately owned gas companies pay large sums in laud tax, income tax, licenses, stamps, Board of Trade levies, municipal rates, royalties, and other annual charges, tho municipal electrical concerns and the power boards are exempt from all of these payments. During tho last six years the Wellington Gas Company, which is typical of other enterprises of the kind, has paid £83,170 in land and income tax, £1200 in annual licenses, £2184 in stamps, £377. in "Board of Trade levy, £8840 in municipal rates, £4825 in royalties, and £1401 in other annual charges, a total of £101,997, or an average of £17,000 a year during tho sis years. An analysis of the figures of the Auckland Gas' Company on similar lines over the same period shows that this concern was' taxed to the extent of £202,158, or an average of £33,793 a year during the six years. EQUAL TERMS DEMANDED. Representations in regard to this matter have been made to the Government again and again, and successive Ministers have disclaimed any wish to see private enterprise placed at a disadvantage in legitimate trading. The position remains unchanged, however, and though the Prime Minister has revived the popular slogan of "Less Government in business and more business in Government" he has not yet pointed the way towards this muchneeded reform. Thi3 is not a case in which the shareholders are clamouring for larger dividends nor in which the companies themselves arc seeking relief. The shareholders are satisfied with a reasonable return upon their investments, and the companies are not grudging their contributions towards the State and municipal revenue. But both the shareholders and the companies object, and object strongly, to State and municipal enterprises being exempt from, the taxation and other charges private enterprises of the same character have to bear. Here a case in point is provided by the Wellington Corporation Electrical Service, which, in addition to supplying current to the tramways, is in active competition with the Wellington Gas Company. The service pays neither State taxation nor municipal rates, annual licenses Hot stamp duty, royalties nor levies, and is a law unto itself in all its ventures and operations. AN AUCKLAND ANOMALY. In reviewing the position an Auckland correspondent, who has studied the