PETROL TAX

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 28, 30 December 1932, Page 6

PETROL TAX

PRIVATE CARS PAY HALF. ANALYSIS OF FIGURES. (Bv Telegraph. —Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 30. Investigations by the Transport Department into the incidence of the petrol tax disclosed that approximately one-half of the total cost of operating motor cars in New Zealand is for purposes of a non-business nature. A further point which the department makes is that during last year, passenger transport effected by motor cars, motor omnibuses and motor cycles contributed £69 out of every £IOO to the petrol tax, against £3l out of every £IOO from trucks. Thus the petrol tax derived from carriage of passengers is over twice that derived from transport of commodities.

Changing conditions may, it is suggested, cause the i>roportions of the tax to shift backwards and forwards —either backwards to the producers of benzine, or forward to consumers, while a certain amoyint of the burden may be carried for a time by the operators of motor transport services. “In the long run,” it is suggested, “the petrol tax will tend to shift forward to the consumers of motor transport services, and, insofar as the increased cost of those services causes a diminution in the demand for them, a proportion of the tax will also in the long run be cast upon the producers of motor vehicles and equipment, in the form of losses of business consequent on a diminished demand.” It is significant of the economic difficulties of the year, accompanied by the rise in duty from 4d to 6d per gallon, that the claims for refunds on account of petrol used for purposes other than motor vehicles increased to £132,150 compared with the refunds of the previous year.