PRICE OF TOBACCO

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 5 August 1931, Page 3

PRICE OF TOBACCO

QUESTION BY” MR G. C. BLACK (From “The Mail’s” Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, 4th August, Mr G. C. Black (Independent, Mptueka) asked the. Prime Minister as. a matter of urgency if he was aware 1 that the wholesale price list issued locally on 31st .Tidy by a tobacco concern showed that cut tobaccos were increased in “duty paid price per lb” by Is 6d ami imported cut tobaccos by, Is 7d “duty paid price per lb,” while the Customs resolutions had increased the duly on such tobaccos by Is 4d per lb. “Will the Minister take steps to sec. that the, general public and the retailers are not exploited in this direction bv reason of the tariff revision?” he asked:

The Prime Minister (the Right Hon. G. W. Forbes) replied that the import duty on tobacco referred to had been increased by Is 4d, subject to a surcharge of l-20t,h or a not total increase of about Is 43d. The excise duty was not subject to the surcharge. The difference between the list prices quoted and the net increase in duty was accounted for by the allowance of discounts on the increased prices. The net return to the selling companies was within a fraction of a penny of that realised prior to the increase in duty.