REDUCED TEA DUTY.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1410, 26 June 1923, Page 3

REDUCED TEA DUTY.

WHAT IT MEANS TO THE CONSUMER. When the House of Representatives was in session in February the Prime Minister indicated that one ot the reductions in taxation which he hoped to he able to ask Parliament to agree to during the present session was to reduce the Customs duty on tea. '1 he Minister of Customs lias now announced that the altered duties will have effect as from the presentation of the Budget and the passing of the amending resolutions. The procedure adopted by the Minister in making a preliminary announcement of this character is unusual. His anxiety to save inconvenience will, however, be appreciated by merchants. As the contemplated changes will involve a substantial reduction in the duty, tea will not be cleared from the Customs pending the formal alterations in the rates. It is proposed that tea of British origin in bulk shall be admit- , ted free. This will represent a reduction of 3d per lb. Foreign tea in bulk is at present subject to a duty of 5d per lb. representing a general reduction of 3d per lb. As the Dominion’s importations are largely in bulk the alteration in this class is most important. Under the proposed changes British packet tea will be charged a duty of 2d per lb instead of 5d as heretofore and foreign packet tea will pay 4d per lb instead of 7d. A primage duty of 1 per cent will remain on all imported tea. The Customs tariff on tea has fluctuated considerably. In the early days of the colony, before the institution of representative government, a duty of 5 per cent ad valorem was imposed on tea. This was in the first tariff contained in the ordinance of 1841. It is interesting to observe that a system of preferential duties is less modern than is commonly supposed, for in that Ordinance, and again in an ordinance of 1846, preference was given to certain products of the Mother Country. In 1556, three years after the establishment of representative government, the duty on tea was increased to 3d per lb, two years later to 4d per lb, and in 1864 to 6d per lb. For 31 years the duty remained at 6d per lb, but in 1895 it was reduced to 4d. This was followed in 1900 by a further reduction to 2d. In 1903 British tea was placed on the free list, but in 1907 a charge of 2d per lb was reimpo’sed on British tea in packages under 51b, and an additional preferential duty of 2d per lb on packages under 5 lbs w.as imposed on foreign tea. Under the tariff of 1917 the duty was fixed at a general rate of 3d per lb for bulk tea and 5d per lb on packages under 51b, with an additional preferential duty of 2d per lb on all foreign grown tea. The alterations that are now pending will am-

end the rates fixed in the tariff of 1921, and as tea is regarded as one of the breakfast table items the reduction of duty will be generally received with satisfaction.