‘Manufacturers Now At Disadvantage’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31093, 23 June 1966, Page 3

‘Manufacturers Now At Disadvantage’

(New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, June 22.

The Manufacturers’ Federation has appealed to the Minister of Finance (Mr Lake) to reconsider his Budget decision to suspend the tax allowance on investment in new plant and machinery.

. In a letter to Mr Lake, the president of the federation (Mr J. R. Maddren) has suggested that the amount of overseas funds spent on new plant could be more effectively controlled by import licensing than by suspending the allowance. Mr Maddren said in Dunedin today that he was concerned about the adverse effect the suspension would have on the competitive position of manufacturers. Firms buying machinery this year would be in a less favourable position than those which had bought plant during the last three years. New Zealand industries would find it more difficult to compete with industries in

other countries which operated under more favourable conditions. In Australia manufacturers received an investment allowance of 20 per cent. The free trade agreement with Australia could not benefit New Zealand manufacturers unless steps were taken to ensure that they were in as favourable a position as their Australian counterparts. “I urge most strongly that every opportunity be taken to improve New Zealand’s position in comparison with competing countries,” he said. In his letter to Mr Lake, Mr Maddren said he had described the suspension of the investment allowance as “a seriously retrograde step."