TAX-FREE USE OF PETROL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19792, 12 November 1927, Page 12

TAX-FREE USE OF PETROL.

ADMINISTRATION PROBLEM.

TINTING AS SAFEGUARD

The Auckland Chamber of Commerce and other bodies have remarked on the difficulty of administering from taxation in the case of petrol used for non-motoring purposes. This lends interest, to the suggestion that petrol could be tinted to identify it according to its application. During the war experiments were made by colouring aviation spirit to distinguish it from general supplies. The idea was never widely employed. The same scheme was suggested when petrol taxes were introduced in most of the States of America. Pink petrol was urged as a safeguard against abuses during a recent campaign in Great Britain for petrol taxation in lieu of the inequit able tax of £1 for each unit of horse power.

The technical expert of an Auckland oil company stated yesterday that there was no scientific objection to colouring petrol intended for use in motor vehicles. One part ot aniline dye yi one million parts of petrol would be sufficient to impart a per ceptible colour The Dominion's annual supply of about 44,000,000 gallons of petrol could thus be coloured at negligible cost. It was also quite feasible, he said, to treat petrol so that it had a distinctive odour, which would betray the presence of illegitimate fuel in a motor-car tank. The expert considered, however, that the best security for the Government was the honesty of its taxpayers. Although only clear petrol might be sold for non motor purposes it would be very difficult to detect the man who secreted a few cases obtained by fraud A man using petrol for both car and launch could easily de feat any unexpected inspection by adding a few drams of dye to the fuel which he transferred from his launch to his car.