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Speaker 1: Business unhappy that the credit card surch charge ban is

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Speaker 1: going ahead. They want it to be scrapped. In an

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Speaker 1: open letter to Consumer Affairs Minister Simpson, business leaders around

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Speaker 1: the country say stopping them from passing on bank fees

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Speaker 1: will backfire. The warning the ban will mean higher prices

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Speaker 1: for all customers or more pressure on already struggling businesses.

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Speaker 1: Either way, not a great outcome, Scott Simpson's would me now, Minister,

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Speaker 1: good evening, Good day Ryan, What did you make of

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Speaker 1: the letter?

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Speaker 2: Look, I understand the messages that they are sending, but

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Speaker 2: Retail New Zealand are representing their members and I'm keen

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Speaker 2: to get a good outcome for New Zealand customers and consumers.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So that means going ahead with it? Yeah, absolutely, Okay,

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Speaker 1: so you just ignore the letter?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, listen to the views. The legislation that will

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Speaker 2: ban these pesky little surch charges is currently at Select Committee.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure that Retail New Zealand will make a submission.

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Speaker 2: We'll listen to what they have to say and hear

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Speaker 2: what the Select Committee decides and then take all those

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Speaker 2: views into account before the legislation has finally passed.

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Speaker 1: You say that businesses should pass on the savings they

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Speaker 1: get from the banking feed changes made by the ComCom.

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Speaker 1: Why not force them instead of making it optional.

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Speaker 2: Well, by banging surchargers, we are actually forcing them to

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Speaker 2: pass on those savings. At the moment, there is no

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Speaker 2: way to guarantee that those savings that the compom is

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Speaker 2: going to have brought into effect by the first of

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Speaker 2: December will actually ever be passed on to customers. Currently,

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Speaker 2: New Zealanders spend about one hundred and fifty million dollars

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Speaker 2: a year on surcharges and ComCom estimate that up to

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Speaker 2: sixty five million of that it's actually overcharging by retailers.

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Speaker 1: What do you I mean, what do you expect them

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Speaker 1: to do? The big problem here they're saying is they

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Speaker 1: get charge the fees. This is their way of passing

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Speaker 1: them on. Otherwise they have to up the prices. Well,

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Speaker 1: I mean, what do they what are they expected to do?

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Speaker 1: What do you expect them to do with those fees

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Speaker 1: that they have to pay.

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Speaker 2: Well, some certainly will pass on the fees, but just remember,

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Speaker 2: as we've just said that the Commerce Commission is regulating

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Speaker 2: the price down of those bank fees, So that's coming

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Speaker 2: down on the first of December. Some businesses will add

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Speaker 2: costs into the shelf price, but many won't. In fact,

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Speaker 2: the majority of New Zealand businesses don't charge sir charges currently,

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Speaker 2: so the ones that choose to add that pricing in

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Speaker 2: will be actually competitively constrained in the marketplace by those

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Speaker 2: businesses that choose not to do so.

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Speaker 1: Hey, Minister, how excited are you by Christopher Luction's leadership.

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Speaker 2: Oh look, we're a team. I think Christopher Luxx's doing

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Speaker 2: an exceptionally good job as Prime Minister. But you know,

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Speaker 2: New Zealand's going through difficult times. It's challenging difficult times.

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Speaker 2: It's been a long, cold, wet winter and the economy

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Speaker 2: is sluggish. We all know that and we desperately want

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Speaker 2: it to improve. I'm very confident that under his leadership.

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Speaker 1: It will appreciate your time. Scott Simpson, Minister of Consumer

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Speaker 1: Affairs and big backer of the Boss. For more from

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Speaker 1: Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news Talks. It'd

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Speaker 1: be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.