PRICES AND PROFITS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 31, 5 August 1930, Page 8

PRICES AND PROFITS

Whether Christchurch retailers of petrol are justified in adding a penny a gallon to their prices we are not prepared to say. It sometimes happens ,in business that the trader is faced with "additional costs which he cannot conveniently pass on at the time they are made, so he carries them until the fractions mount up to a sum which is chargeable. But whatever the justification may be, the retailers will find difficulty in putting themselves right in the eyes of the public when they have- been adding the full tax to petrol which has not paid it. The oil companies have decided to carry one penny of the new direct tax and also the difference between the new surtax of one-twentieth of the duty and the former primage duty of 2 per cent, ad valorem. If the retailers try' to intercept this concession they will antagonise the public. This applies to other trades in which there appears to be a tendency to make the new tariff an excuse for taking a little more than the added duty from the public. It should be acknowledged that this attempt is by no means general. When the primage duty was doubled last year it was carried by many traders, and they have since carried a heavier burden imposed by S the adverse exchange. But there are some who have not followed this practice and have made extra taxation an excuse for extra profit. They are unwise to do so, for the public note and resent such practices and blame the whole body of traders. The fair practice followed by the majority is not so well remembered. At a time like this, when traders are experiencing great difficulty, the few who neglect the effect of public opinion are doing their fellows a grave disservice.