DUTIES ON TOBACCO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21540, 11 July 1933, Page 11

DUTIES ON TOBACCO

BRITISH TARIFF URGED FORMS OF MANUFACTURE EQUAL TREATMENT SOUGHT [ BY TKI/EGHAI'FI— OWN ('OItItESPONDENT] WELLINGTON, Monday A request for alterations in the duties on tobacco and cigarettes was made to the Tariff Commission to-day by Mr. R. B. Smith, managing director of W. D. and H. 0 Wills (N.Z.), Limited.

Mr. Smith argued that the British tariff' should be followed as regards the main principle that there should be no discrimination in taxation between different forms of manufacture. The British tariii had proved a wonderful revenue producer. Last year in Great Britain £1 (3s (3d per head had been collected on tobacco, while during tho same period in New Zealand the per capita rate had been £1 0s Bd. The tax per pound in Great Britain had been 8s 8.44(1, and in the Dominion 7s 2d. He requested that the British tariff should be followed as regards giving adequate protection to local manufacture. In the United Kingdom, the manufacturer was more strongly protected than ever the New Zealand industry had been.

Mr. Smith asked that the degree of protection on locally-grown leaf should lie maintained. It should bo possible, he contended, for the manufacturer to market profitably a good standard size of cigarette at 10 for 6d. A serious weakness in the present tariff was that the rates made this impossible on a profitable basis with adequate advertising.

If the principles recommended were accepted, the surtax and sales taxwould be no longer collected on any leaf, cigarettes or tobacco. The whole of tho taxation to be collected on locally-manufactured goods would be obtained at the time the leaf was cleaned for manufacture, and the whole of the taxation on imported manufactured goods would be collected at the time of clearing from bond.