Mrs Castle refers NFC
Page 19
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rise to PIB
• A rise of 10 per cent on general charges, effective from July 1. was announced last Friday by the State-owned National Freight Corporation. Concurrently Mrs Barbara Castle's Department of Employment and Productivity announced that the increases had been referred to the Prices and Incomes Board.
"The increases are regretted," says the NFC "but they are unavoidable in the light of the Corporation's statutory duty and the proper commercial conduct of its business. The whole question of costs, charges and productivity is to be examined by the PIB in due course. "The individual companies will be getting in touch with their customers forthwith about the implementation of this permitted general increase of 10 per cent."
Since it was established on January I 1969 the NFC several times raised its charges; for example, parcels rates have twice increased—by seven per cent in May last year and by 124 per cent last January. It is pointed out, however, by a Corporation spokesman. that there was a considerable period prior to the formation of NFC during which its constituent organizations had maintained their rates unaltered.
A spokesman for the RHA told CM: "The NFC are members of ours and this is a step they feel that they have to take. A number of our members have put up rates recently and others are thinking about this
seriously. The CAPS report on inter-firm comparisons indicated considerable increases in costs, so this is something our members are looking at carefully to see if their rates are taking the increases' into account."