MILEAGE TAX

Grey River Argus, 10 March 1933, Page 6

MILEAGE TAX

ON TROLLY-BUSES Fight in the House CHRISTCHURCH M'S.P. SCORE. WELLINGTON, March 9. Representations from Christchurch regarding the effect of the taxation of trolly-buses, contemplated. under the Finance Bill (No. 4), were niau'! in the House, Mi- Coates; “Petrol Puses pay an average of £243 as it is. Now they’ll ] tty £2lO, and 1 offered to cut £4O off.” He gave an undertaking that the proposed reduction of 20 per cent, in th ( » tax in the rase of electrical vein cles would be increased to 40 per cent. Answering an interjection by Mr JMcCombs (Lab., Lyttelton), the Minister said the reduction would be 40 per cent, on £174. The opinion that the Christchurch Tramway Board was well able to pay taxation on trolly-buses and should not seek to avoid it was expressed by ii Minister. Mr. McCombs desired to make H clear that opposition to the proposal would be continued in spile of Hie concession, for 't.herp were members in the House who ‘objected to the princi ! Io of the tax. Mr I) G Sullivan (Lab. Avon.) said that according to his information, if a ifax» of £l4O was added to the annual cost of £278 for power for each bus, ;hen the .Board was Likely to go back to petrol buses, in which ease imported power would be used instead of New Zealand electricity. He thou ght some tax might be paid, but con sidered that local bodies were entitled to it. and not the Consolidated Fund. Air Coates: I don’t want to be unreasonable. Supposing T °ut out the reference to the Consolidated Fund and reduce the tax to £lOO. or the equivalent of petrol tax of (id. O 1 that. 8| per cent, would go to the cities. 22 per cent, to the boroughs and somewhat more to the counties. Mr. Sullivan: They should not have to pay more than petrol buses. When -the House was in committee on clause 19 of tin* bill which provides for the taxation of trackless trolley o.minbuses, there was a further heated passage between Mr 11, T. Armstrong (Lab.. Christchurch East) and the Minister for Finance (the Kt. Hou. (I. Coates). Air Armstrong protested vehemently against this taxation measure. “Nov the. Alinister offers to let the tax down a bit.’’ said Mr Armstrong ‘ ‘ J.t is robber y’ whether he makes i’ £4O or £149. lie will be putting a tax on perambulators next. J know the Board is a wealthy corporation and not. very long ago the Alinister supported it when it refused to pay award wages.' ’ Air Smith called Mr. Armstrong io order for speaking irrelevantly, but Air. Armstrong shouted out at the top of his voice, ‘‘The Minister is a tw: cer!’’ The Alinister and Air. Armstrong ex r hanged interjections. Air. Smith’s next action was to turn on Air Coates and tell him that he would be called to order unless he stopped interject' ing.

“Well I rise to a point of order.’' said Air. Coates with some heat. “1 am not going to be called a ‘twicer by anyone in this House.’’ Mr. Smith then called upion Air Arm strong fro withdraw the word. Air, Armstrong: The Alinister is a

shifter. Air. Smith: The honourable member must withdraw that. Air. Armstrong; Wed. I’ll say that the Alinister would say anything to justify anything, Mr. Smith: That is all right.

Bigger Concession FORCED FROM MINISTER NOW 60 PER CENT. (Special To “Argus”) WELLINGTON March 9. A concentrated crusade by Christchurch mqmbers from all parties in the House to night resulted in the extraction of a total concession of 60 per cent, in the rebate to be granted to the electrically driven vehicles under the mileage taxation imposed by the Finance Bill. The original proposal in the legislation was for a rebate of 20 per cent. In pommittjeo yesterday, Mr Coates agreed to increase this to 40 per cent. To-night the Minister, however introduced an amendment to bring •" , ' figure up to 50 per eent, with an ad ditional provision that all the mileage tax from eleefirieally-driven vehicles should be .paid into the Highways Fund. In other words, the rebate now being allowed will come off that portion of the revenue which would otherwise have been paid into the Consolidated Fund. The amount collected from the other vehicles subject to the milcage tax: will be divided between the Highways and the Consolidated Fund in the same proposition as the petrol tax is now allocated. While grateful for the concession, the Christchurch members insisted that, even, yet, there was the danger of the trolly buses being forced off the road, by the new taxation. Following vigorous advocacy, the Minister agreed to increase the amount of the rebate by a further 10 per cent, making 60 ppr cent, in all. In making the concession, Mr. Coates emphasised the view that the users should pay. He said that was the method which should be adopted.“Certainly, we want, the use of electricity for all forms of locomotion if it is considered satisfactory, ’ ’ he ad■d. “I would suggest that in view of the sacrifices I have made in this case on behalf of the Government, no one can accuse me of being hidebound.” The amendment was adopted.