Customs Taxation

Northland Age, Volume 1, Issue 2, 12 December 1928, Page 3

Customs Taxation

Taxes Off Necessities There can be no gainsaying. The fact that the operation of the tariff is oppressive and the weight of taxation is greater than the country can bear and, provided economy is effected in the administration of the country’s finance, the proceeds from customs taxition are greater than the country’s needs. When it iseximinedin detail, it is found to impose many anomalous imposts. Goods that are necessities in the most frugal household, articles that are luxuries only because of the inflation of their cost by heavy duties, are taxed at the Customs though they are not manufactured in the country. There need be no hesitation in making a clean sweep of such duties in respect of British goods, leaving only the usual margin of taxation on foreign goods in competitive classes. Greater care must be taken in reviewing those portions of the tariff designed to protect local industries, but even these must not be with-held from scrutiny, for the purpose of a protective duty should be merely to shelter the local industry from foreign competition, not to fatten it at the expense of others.