ISSUE OF IMPORT LICENCES

Southland Times, Issue 24055, 20 February 1940, Page 2

ISSUE OF IMPORT LICENCES

BUSINESS MEN COMPLAIN ABOUT DELAY The Associated Chambers of Commerce has been informed that the Government cannot complete its plans and call for fourth period applications until the substantial disposal of the residue of third period licences has been made, thereby enabling the sterling position for the third period to be charted in relation to the availability of sterling for the fourth period. A circular letter has been received from the Associated Chambers by the Invercargill Chamber in response tu complaints about the delay in the issue of the remainder of the licences for thq third period. Importers who think that their applications are of particular urgency should communicate with ths Industries Council and give reasons for early finality. Applications for fourthperiod licences will probably be invited next week or early in March. The completion of applications for the third period is not wholly a matter for the Customs Department, states the letter. There is in operation an Indus-

tries Council to which those applications for (a) raw materials for manufacturing industry and (b) finished goods possibly affecting manufacturing industry are referred for investigation. It was at that point that delay had occurred, state the members of the Industries Council, because of the investigation and inquiries, sometimes protracted, which these applications—principally affecting raw materials, plant and equipment, rather than finished goods—frequently necessitated. It was agreed by the Industries Council that there were certain applications which had been awaiting finality for about two months, but as against that the council stated that (a) its work of disposing of all applications had been made more onerous by the fact that it was required to deal with still further applications for the third period, which were continuing to come in at the rate of about 100 a day; and (b) that in most cases of delayed decisions the applicants had been informed of the reasons for the delay in the granting of the licences. The Industries Council would be in a better position to deal with complaints if particular cases of delay were cited. In those cases where urgency was sought for the granting of licences, applicants were asked to communicate with the Industries Council so that their request for priority could be given consideration. Information was to hand that applications for fourth period licences were expected to be called towards the end of this month, or early in March. It was possible that those tentative dates would apply to applications for seasonal goods, which might be called for earlier than applications for nonseasonal goods.