IN THE HOUSE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 96, 7 August 1945, Page 3

IN THE HOUSE

MR W. SULLIVAN'S QUESTIONS

THE TAX ON PETROL

A question relating to a reported Government profit of 3d a. gallon on petrol in addition to the existing tax oi' Is 2d a asked by Mr W. Sullivan Bay of Plenty) ? • was answered by the Minister of Supply (Mr D. G. Sullivan) in the House of Representatiyes. The Minister said that the statement that the Government obtained a profit of 3d per gallon on all petrol and that the direct profit taken from this commodity under lease-lend for the years 1941-4,4 was £3,125 000 r was grossly inaccurate. "In terms of the Government's stabilisation policy and of the decision to include, petroleum products as goods; for which the prices were to be stablised retail prices have not been advanced in accordance with increased landed costs beyond prices ruling at the date of the decision," he said. "Landed have shown considerable but the impact of those variations Js. being borne by the Ministry of Supply. While landed costs of petrol have recently shown a downward trend, the. advices of all costs received from the suppliers are not necessarily final nor have the prices payable by the distributing companies been settled. To the extent that there, is apparent benefit on one commodity the resultant if ultimately is required to offset excess charges still being absorbed by the Government on petroleum products in general until those charges arc exceeded, it is impossible to estimate profits or losses over all petroleum products. The possibility of reducing the price of petrol to the public is constantly in the mind of the Government but in the circumstances; this > > ■•> cannot be effected without taking other relevant considerations into account." Replying to another question ask-' ed by Mr Sullivan the Minister of Defence (Mr Jones) said it was the policy of the Government to require a serviceman to deposit £150 New Zealand currency, . before he could bring his fiancee to New Zealand. The sum was a guarantee that the marriage would be proceeded, •with. The sum covered a fixed steamer fare and reasonable travelling expenses from the fiancee's home in the United Kingdom to her destina-* tion in New Zealand. The question of reducing the amount of the deposit required was under consideration.