STICKERS AND PLATES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 34, 9 August 1943, Page 4

STICKERS AND PLATES

REPLY TO MINISTER

"The Hon. P. C. Webb has given a very belated reply to Mr. McKeen, in Parliament, regarding the exorbitant charges made by the Post and Telegraph Department for motor vehicle registration plates and stickers," said Mr. E. A. Batt, chairman of the council of the Automobile Association, today. "It can reasonably be assumedthat the Minister, as PostmasterGeneral, has in the meantime obtained from his officers all the facts and figures," said Mr. Batt. "If this is correct why does he in the first place state that the 'actual' cost of car stickers is over £4 a thousand? It is therefore not the actual cost but an approximate figure. However, the figure given by the Minister divulges that the stickers cost not more than Id each while motor vehicle owners are charged 6d, and should a sticker require replacement the vehicle owner is charged Is for the replacement.

"The amount of £108,000 proßp on number plates quoted by the Minister, although he does not say so, actually refers to. a past period, from 1924 to 1933. The up-to-date and complete returns obtained from official records, and quoted by me in the 'Evening Post* of June 26, covering the period from 1924 to 1942, show that the Post and Telegraph Department made a profit on number plates of £245,342, in addition to which (and the Minister for reasons best known to himseli omitted to mention) the Department received £392,557, being Is 6d per transaction in licensing, registering, and transfers of vehicles, to cover the Department's expenditure in performing this service, or a total amount of £637,899, an average of £35,439 a year.

"All these figures are from official ny-ords, and it is misleading for the Minister to challenge their accuracy, because he has access to the official documents from which they were obtained. Allowing for all the checking, etc., which the Minister refers to, the public can only be left with the impression that the Department is making an exorbitant profit and that it is a subtle method of extracting taxation from motor vehicle owners who* as I have shown in figures relating to petrol and other vehicle taxes, are being exploited through an easy and inexpensive method of collecting taxation."