No Change In Basic Price Control Principle

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 55, 14 June 1948, Page 6

No Change In Basic Price Control Principle

Changes that have been brought about in the organisation and procedures of price control in New Zealand through the coming into effect of the Control of Prices Act, 1947, are mainly administrative, designed to 'make the system work more smoothly and efficiently, says “Consumer News.” But there is no change in the basic principle of price control, which is to ensure that prices are fair to both consumer and trader. This involves ensuring that shortages do not lead to the public being held to ransom, and that mounting overseas costs of imported goods and raw materials appear only to their justified extent in New Zealand prices and are not made the basis on which to build excessive profits. When the Price - Tribunal has given a ruling on a price, that price is “fixed” only in the sense that the upper limit has been defined, and cannot be exceeded without the authority of the Tribunal. But to say that a price has been “fixed by the Price Tribunal” and therefore cannot be reduced, is incorrect. It is for the trader to decide whether, in the normal procedures of competitve business, he will charge less than the maximum price defined by the Tribunal.