TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays FRIDAY, 14th SEPTEMBER, 1945 PETROL USERS’ BURDEN

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 71, Issue 6136, 14 September 1945, Page 4

TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays FRIDAY, 14th SEPTEMBER, 1945 PETROL USERS’ BURDEN

REDUCTION in thd price of petrol in Great Britain to Is Hid a gallon will not escape the notice of motorists in New’ Zealand who are paying 2s Hid a gallon. Of this, approximately ls .sJ>d is taken by the State, including 4d a gallon for war purposes. The average motorist has borne the extra charge cheerfully, and has been glad enough to enjoy such use of his car as his coupons permitted. Now that peace has been restored, however, and the Government has made a generous expansion in the value of the coupons, the question of price assumes a

greater importance. For the commercial user of petrol price is of very real significance, and its effects upon transportation costs generally are substantial. There are so many war-time taxes now being paid by the people that the t°x on motoring may not be regarded as particulahrly onerous. The sales tax, which bears so heavily upon families and the returned servicemen who desire to set up homes for themselves, is the first that must be attacked. None the less, motorists are not likely to remain silent indefinitely unless they are promised some relief. With the volume of petrol being used being multiplied, the total ax is also being multiplied. It is an easy way for the Government to collect more money simply by increasing the petrol ration. In these days, however, when it costs a motorist more than £1 to fill his car-tank, he may become rather critical at the price he has to pay. It will not be surprising if the Minister of Finance does not soon begin to hear from the motoring fraternity and the owners of commercial vehicles, particularly as only sixpence of the levy on each gallon goes to the Highways Account. The petrol tax was introduced originally for the purpose of meeting expenditure on highways, and although even in that guise it was a class tax, it was cheerfully accepted on the principle that those who used the roads should pay for them. It remains, however, that the money collected has been largely diverted from use in building and maintaining highways to bolster up the general revenue of the State. As a result the Highways Board has been compelled to borrow money to pay for work that should have been financed from the contributions of the motorists. It has now become a consistent policy, and has had the effect of lifting annual loan and sinking fund charges of the Highways Board to half a million pounds annually. This represents a far cry from the original “ pay as you go ” policy in highways taxation, and if it is continued it will mean that a great proportion of the motorists’ contributions will, in future, be swallowed in debt charges, thus limiting the speed and the range of continual highways development in New Zealand.