CONSUMER PAYS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 19155, 11 April 1932, Page 2

CONSUMER PAYS

SALES TAX ENCOURAGES IMPORTS. TRADESMEN VOICE OPPOSITION. CHRISTCHURCH, April 9. The proposed sales tax received more or less general condemnation by retailers and wholesalers who were interviewed this morning. They stated that the tendency would be for the ! wholesaler to avoid portion of the tax bv attempting to deal with the public direct, and for the retailer to escape the tax imposed on him by the wholesaler by importing his goods direct. ! That would tend to increase Imports at the expense of the locally-made article. The position in which large institutions such as the North Canterbury | Hospital Board and the Paparua Gaol I will be placed is a matter of conjecture. The hospital Board has already entered Into contracts for supply for this year involving many thousands of pounds, and the question Is whether the contractor will be required to pay the tax if the proposed legislation is bro ught into effect. If he has to pay, it is stated that the board would have to consider meeting him in that extra expense. If the tax is imposed on next year’s contracts it will considerably increase the commitments of the board, which supplies food and household equipment to about 1500 persons. That a sales tax would increase the price of manufactures to the public was the opinion of one wholesaler, who said that manufacturers and retailers W'ere now working on such small margins of profit that they could not stand any further taxation without passing the cost on to the consuming public. The tax was unfair. "The Government has to get money from somewhere, and the sales tax seems to be working all right in Australia." stated the principal of a firm - which has both New Zealand and Australian interests. "The tax is certainly cumbersome, ar.d means more book work for manufacturers and re- ' tailers. The tax would have to be passed on to the consumer.”