The Higher Cost a Petrol.
Page 1
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
There appears to be an unpardonable confusion of ideas in sonic quarters with regard to the extra charges to users since Mr. Lloyd-George's speech. We are not concerned, at the moment, with our recent arguments against the tax upon commercial motors on the ground of its inequity, but with the amusing intrusion of certain parties upon what rnay be regarded as a fleeting difference of opinion between merchant and retailer. We do not refer, of course, to contractual relations, for, notwithstanding the views of a few solicitors to the contrary, the duty may, provided such duty has been paid on the deliveries so charged at augmented rates, legally be enforced by the importer as an addition to the sale price. That was settled, for 1901 and future years, by the Finance Act of eight years ago. Deliveries from stocks which had been ” entered " at any port in this country prior to 12 midnight on the 29th April have not, admittedly, paid any duty, and credit notes—at least to the 15th instant— have been issued to all purchasers under contract who were temporarily debited by the sellers at agreement prices plus 3d. per gallon. This practice, clearly, may govern further deliveries from non-bonded supplies.
The case of -the retailer is the one that interests us. Why should he make the profit, as a " spot " buyer, in preference to the importer ? We consider that he has no case at all, whilst it is pure assumption to say that he would sell to the public at the lower price if he were still able to buy at the old figure. London dealers had marked up the price on the morning of Friday, the 30th April, and some even on Budget night, before they had had the opportunity to ask the intentions of the importers, and this we accept as evidence that the public would-except in rare instances—have had to pay. Nobody can blame • the merchants who discharge contract obligations from bond and sell on the market from stock. in any event, we have good reasons to put preBudget stacks from abroad at less than 6,000,000 gals lous, and large deliveries have already been made therefrom against contracts. If it had been practicable to ensure that the user gained the benefit, the importers might have taken other action. What they have done is neither contrary to custom nor unreasonable.