AS ELECTION NEARS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 18, 21 July 1943, Page 5

AS ELECTION NEARS

AUSTRALIANS CUT PRICES

Rec. 11 a.m. SYDNEY, July 21. Big reductions in the Australian fixed prices of tea and potatoes and the sales tax on clothing have been announced by Mr. Curtin. From today the retail price of tea is fixed at the pre-war levels of 2s 3d a lb for first grade, Is lid a lb for second grade—reduction of Is 2d a lb. The price of potatoes will be fixed at 51b for 6d. The cut operates in about a week, when old stock is cleared. The sales tax on clothing and textiles will be reduced from 12£ per cent, to 7& per cent. This reduction operates as new stock replaces old stock on which the retailers paid the higher sales tax.

The Government will reimburse employers for cost of living increase in wages which will commence in August as the result of retail price rises during the June quartei\ The public has been promised increased supplies of essential vegetables and essential clothing. The Government will bear the cost of all these decisions, which have been made as part of the price stabilisation plan inti'oduced some months ago. "The Government is firmly resolved that the price level and the cost of living must be kept steady," said M\\ Curtin, announcing the new price levels.

♦'ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS."

"It is equally concerned that sufficient goods should be made available at these prices to meet essential civilan requirements. The prices of nearly all the most important foodstuffs have already been stabilised or controlled at a reasonable level."

The leader of the Federal Opposition, Mr. A. W. Fadden, describes the price reduction as a "vote catching handout," and says, "Mr. Curtin hopes this will serve as a smokescreen to conceal the bungling and slovenly administration of the Government during the past 22 months,"

The "Sydney Morning Herald" comments editorially that "a strong political flavour obtrudes itself in the Prime Minister's announcement of the latest phase of the price policy." The reduction in the price of tea will, it is estimated, save the Australian public more than £2,000,000 a year. Tea retailers will receive reimbursement from wholesalers for any loss involved in selling the present stocks at the new reduced prices.