IMPORT CONCESSION

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 67, 16 September 1943, Page 4

IMPORT CONCESSION

SIXTH PERIOD LICENCES

The Comptroller of Customs has advised the Bureau of Importers that he has agreed to permit goods ordered under sixth period licences which may arrive mv New Zealand after December next to be admitted under importers' seventh or eighth period licences for similar goods, subject to the orders for those goods having been accepted overseas not later than December 31, 1942. In the event of no such licence being available the Comptroller states that consideration will be given to the issue of special licences in particular cases.

The letter was received by the Bureau of Importers in reply to representations that the deadline of December 31 next in respect of sixth period import licences would result in cancellation of numerous unshipped orders, the majority of which had already been sponsored by the Ministry of Supply as being of extreme urgency. The bureau pointed out to the Comptroller of Customs the gravity of the situation whereby goods ordered under sixth period licences must be paid for and shipped by October 31, and that if this information was cabled to overseas suppliers wholesale cancellation would ensue, further intensifying the already existing shortage of many commodities in New Zealand. It was considered a matter of vital importance that an extension to June 30, 1944, should be granted.