CUSTOMS TAXATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19720, 20 August 1927, Page 10

CUSTOMS TAXATION.

In his defence of the existing scale of customs taxation in his speech on Thursday evening, the Minister of Finance seems to have committed himself to a statement which completely undermines his contention that he cannot recommend a reduction of taxation. Remarking that complaints of its burdensomeness were based upon the total volume of taxes, Mr. Stewart said that, if the duties were reduced, such an increase of imports would follow that the customs receipts would be approximately the same total amount. If that observation has any practical bearing upon the question, its only reasonable interpretation is that criticism of the tariff is justified, that it is to some extent oppressive, making such an addition to the cost of imported goods that their use is curtailed. That being the case, and the purpose of the tariff being to produce a certain amount of revenue—the protective aspect is not touched by the Minister's discussion—why should he hesitate to reduce the duties when he is so confident that the Treasury would not suffer 1 The case for a reduction of duties does not rest wholly upon the total amount of customs taxation, as the Minister suggests. Attention has frequently been directed to the fact that heavy duties are levied on many articles that are unquestionably necessaries of life, though the imports do not compete with any local productions. There is no doubt that the maintenance of such duties inflates the cost of living, which tho Government undertook to relieve by modifying the burden of customs taxation. They probably restrict the importations, so that a lower scale of duties would not diminish the total revenue. With Mr. Stewart's assurance that his Budget would not be disturbed by concessions—and on his exposition, the more liberal they are, the greater would be the accretion to the revenue—it is to be hoped that the proposed revision of the tariff will include a general abatement of duties that are oppressively heavy.