Latest / Best of Business / Scott Simpson: Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister on the open letter urging Govt to rethink surcharge ban

Transcript

Scott Simpson: Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister on the open letter urging Govt to rethink surcharge ban · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZEDB. Follow this
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  Speaker 2: Business unhappy that the credit cards to charge ban is
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  Speaker 2: going ahead. They want it to be scrapped. In an
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  Speaker 2: open letter to Consumer Affairs Minister Simpson, business leaders around
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  Speaker 2: the country say stopping them from passing on bank fees
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  Speaker 2: will backfire. The warning the ban will mean higher prices
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  Speaker 2: for all customers or more pressure on already struggling businesses.
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  Speaker 2: Either way, not a great outcome. Scott Simpson's with me now, Minister,
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  Speaker 2: Good evening.
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  Speaker 3: Gooday, Ryan, what did you.
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  Speaker 2: Make of the letter?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I understand the messages that they are sending, but
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  Speaker 3: Retail New Zealand are representing their members and I'm keen
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  Speaker 3: to get a good outcome for New Zealand customers and consumers.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So that means going ahead with it? Yeah, absolutely, Okay,
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  Speaker 2: so you just ignore the letter?
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  Speaker 3: Well, no, Look, listen to the views. The legislation that
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  Speaker 3: will ban these pesky little surcharges is currently at Select committee.
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  Speaker 3: I'm sure that Retail New Zealand will make a submission.
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  Speaker 3: We'll listen to what they have to say and hear
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  Speaker 3: what the Select Committee decides and then take all those
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  Speaker 3: views into account before the legislation is finally passed.
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  Speaker 2: You say that businesses should pass on the savings they
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  Speaker 2: get from the banking feed changes made by the ComCom.
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  Speaker 2: Why not force them instead of making it optional.
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  Speaker 3: Well, by banning surchargers, we are actually forcing them to
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  Speaker 3: pass on those savings. At the moment, there is no
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  Speaker 3: way to guarantee that those savings that the ComCom is
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  Speaker 3: going to have brought into effect by the first of
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  Speaker 3: December will actually ever be passed on to customers. Currently,
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  Speaker 3: New Zealanders spend about one hundred and fifty million dollars
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  Speaker 3: a year on surcharges and ComCom estimate that up to
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  Speaker 3: sixty five million of that it's actually overcharging by retailers.
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  Speaker 2: What do you I mean, what do you expect them
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  Speaker 2: to do? The big problem here they're saying is they
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  Speaker 2: get charge the fees. This is their way of passing
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  Speaker 2: them on, otherwise they have to up the prices. Well,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, what are they expected to do? What do
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  Speaker 2: you expect them to do with those fees that they
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  Speaker 2: have to pay.
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  Speaker 3: Well, some certainly will pass on the fees, but just remember,
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  Speaker 3: as We've just said that the Commerce Commission is regulating
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  Speaker 3: the price down of those bank fees, so that's coming
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  Speaker 3: down on the first of December. Some businesses will add
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  Speaker 3: costs into the shelf price, but many won't. In fact,
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  Speaker 3: the majority of New Zealand businesses don't charge sir charges currently,
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  Speaker 3: so the ones that choose to add that pricing in
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  Speaker 3: will be actually competitively constrained in the marketplace by those
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  Speaker 3: businesses that choose not to do so.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, Minister, how excited are you by Christopher Luction's leadership.
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  Speaker 3: Oh look, we're a team. I think Christopher Luxon's doing
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  Speaker 3: an exceptionally good job as Prime Minister. But you know,
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand's going through difficult times. It's challenging, difficult. It's
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  Speaker 3: been a long, cold, wet winter and the economy is sluggish.
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  Speaker 3: We all know that and we desperately want it to improve.
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  Speaker 3: But I am very confident that under his leadership it will.
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  Speaker 2: Appreciate your time. Scott Simpson, Minister of Consumer Affairs and
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  Speaker 2: a big backer of the Boss.
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