Shanghai Chamber of Commerce Requests Abolition Shanghai, July 12.
In a petition to the Ministry of Finance, the Chamber of Commerce of Shanghai requests the inimediate abolition of taxes on parcels going through the post, The message reads in part:
The system of parcel postal taxi ion was. unknown a short time ago and it came into existence only very recently when the country was govened by nuilitarists, Even at this ime, the system was practised in a Sew provinces only, The excuse for this taxation is that the cargo passed through the Post Office has failed to pay likin duty and this is to make good the emission, When the Nationalists established their capital at Nanking the taxation was practised! throughout: le country and special administrations were formed all provinees. to look after the collection. Although the system hi been adopted by the Government for an three years the corruption deed beyond description, When an application is being filed for the mailing of a parcel in a for instance, the applicant has to pay a full duty, coastal duty, wharfage and con servancy dues, ete,; in addition he has to pay 2.5 per cent, parcel post tax and when the parcel has reached ts destination another 2.5 per cent. paved post tax has to be paid, The Journal issued by the British Chamtber of Commerce has in its May issue pointed out the unwise system, It says: "The parcel post duty is not a new duty, it is a Kind of likin, according. to Mr. T. V. Soong, Minister of Finance, "But likin duty not applicable to. all parcel post with foreign countries nor among the treaty ports; whereas under this new system it is applicable to all alike. Again the tax is not assessed as the customs authorities do. with the ordinary import and'export and it is usually much higher. Likin is collected once for all; whereas, the parcel post tax is collected several times on the sonic parcel. A. piece of silk, for instance, is to be, posted: from Shanghai to Nanking. If the silk weighs 100 catties, the applicant has to pay postage $6.60, customs duty $41.40, and paved post tax $95 altogether $57 in the case the silk goes through the post office. If same is to be carried by a passenger through the train he has to pay $3.04 for freight $17 likin, total 4. When it is entrusted to the freight service office the charge for freight is only $0.32 plus $17 liking the total is $17.32, "this is enough to show the difference and how unfair the postal service is. Tt is only natural that the public will do its best to avoid using the post service as a t portation agency. In Shi instance, the postal income dei from parcel posts had a wonderful growth prior to the introduction of this new system, In 1927, the Post Office received 1,013; whereas for the last Unvee months, from March to May, the figure shows only 192,079."
Judging from the above, the taxation is detrimental to both the Gov ernment and the people. Tt is therefore suggested that its immediate abolition should be effected.—Kuo Wen,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.