TARIFF ADJUSTMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 29 May 1933, Page 9

TARIFF ADJUSTMENTS

PROBABILITY OF REVISION. COMMISSION’S INQUIRY. "It is probable that the Customs tariff will be revised during the next session of Parliament as a result of the report of the Customs Tariff Commission which has just been appointed, states a notification published in the last Gazette for public information. The notification draws the attention of all those interested to the following provisions of section 130 of the Customs Act, 1913 (as amended by the Customs Amendment Act, 1921):—

"(1) If, after any agreement is made (whether in New Zealand or elsewhere) for the sale of goods, any alteration takes place in the law relating to the liability of such goods to duty or in the rate or amount of such duty, then, in the absence of express written provision to the contrary, the agreement shall be deemed to be modified as follows: (a) In the event of the alteration being a new or increased duty, the seller, after payment thereof, may add to the agreed price the difference caused by the alteration; (b) in the event of the alteration being the reduction of duty, the purchaser may deduct from the agreed price the difference between the amount of duty which the seller would have paid had the alteration not been made and the amount of duty actually paid by him; (c) in the event of the alteration being the abolition of the duty, the purchaser may deduct from the agreed price the duty which the seller would have paid had the alteration not been made.

“(2) When any such alteration of duties takes place so as to operate retrospectively from any date this section shall also apply retrospectively in like manner as from the same date.

“(3) Any money paid by a buyer to a seller in excess of the amount payable under this section may be recovered from the seller as money paid by mistake whether the error was one of fact or law. “(4) All the provisions of this section with respect to an alteration of the law shall extend and apply to any alteration of the tariff by ■ authority of the Governor-General in Council or by any other lawful authority.”