PENALTY CLAUSES

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 35, 11 February 1933, Page 12

PENALTY CLAUSES

QUESTION OF EXEMPTIONS

MINISTER EXPLAINS

An explanation of the penalty clauses of the Sales Tax Bill was made by Mr. Coates when the Bill was introduced. He stated that the Government was not prepared to.consider de novo the question of exemptions.

"It will be noticed," he said, "that the fines imposed under this Bill are relatively heavy. Honourable members will recognise, however, that in a statute dealing with taxation of this kind it is necessary that the fines should be higher than in other matters. In the of sales tax and Customs taxes the information to enable the .correct tax to be charged is, generally speaking, within the knowledge of the taxpayer only. I.would draw attention to the.fact that similar provisions respecting fines to those in this Bill have been in the Customs Act for twenty years, and that the general practice is not to take proceedings in Court unless the Government cannot be satisfied that fraud was 'not involved. It is intended that a similar course should be adopted iiu-dealing with offences respecting sales' tax. Such offences under the Sales Tax Act (that is, cases in which fraud is riot involved) will be dealt with under section 244 of the Customs Act, 1913, which gives power to the Minister to deal with cases without referring them to. Court. The Sales Tax Act will be one of the Customs Acts, and accordingly the Minister Will have ample power to deal with cases of innocent or inadvertent error. The Government fully recognise that in making out' returns under the Sales Tax Act, clerical or other mistakes are bound to arise, and I can assure the House that where the Government is satisfied that the offences are not deliberate, Court proceedings will not be instituted." PROTESTS RECEIVED. . Mr. W. E. Parry (Labour, Auckland Central) said that protests had been received by reason of the- fact that articles used in connection with farming had not been exempted; coolers and vats for dairy use were articles in question.

Mr. A. Harris (Government, Waitemata) said that though it was necessary for some articles to be exempted, the exemption list should be kept down to the lowest.

Mr. D. G. Sullivan (Labour, Avon) said he would like to know the Government's attitude in regard to further exemptions.

Mr. Coates said that undoubtedly the legislation would be easier to administer if the exemptions were smaller, but it would necessarily be difficult to create any more exemptions. At the same time, if there was an application in a case that was unanswerable, then it would appear that in the interests of everybody the article should be exempted. He did not want to create the impression that the Government was going to consider the question de nOvo. He would advise those who desired to come to Wellington first of all to ask the Minister whether their visit would be. worth while. He could not say at the moment whether it was worth anyone's while coming here; but that was not to say that in certain cases the Government would not-give the matter very full consideration.

In reply to a question by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. H. E. Holland) as to whether newspapers had been excluded on the ground of hardship, Mr. Coates said it might appear as if thero was vindietiveness on the part of the Government if newspapers had not been excluded, and no one could lay that charge against the Government. He said some concern had been expressed because the Bible had not been excluded specifically, but it would be exempted under the heading of religious tracts. / ■

Mr. "W. E. Barnard (Labour, Napier) contended that the Bible was more than a religious tract.

Mr. Coates Temarked that it was a departmental interpretation.