Standard Gas Charges

Date01 July 1936
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1936.tb02443.x
AuthorR. J. Restall
Published date01 July 1936
Public
Administration
STANDARD
GAS
CHARGES
By
R.
J.
RESTALL,
M.Inst.Gas
E.
IN
the October,
1935.
issue of
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION,
Mr.
J.
D.
Imrie,
M.A.,
contributes
a
useful and controversial article
dealing
with the aspect of
charging
for services rendered.
Costing
in
the Gas
Industry
There
are
many reasons why costing
in
the
Gas
Industry nowadays
is
given
a
certain
amount
of
prominence, the foremost of these being the
fact
that
as
trading concerns, whether municipal or company owned,
it
is
esential
to
can-
pete with ather sources
of
fuel
on
a manufacturing basis. During recent years
indeed greater attention has been given
to
actual
costings
for
bolth
manufacture
and distribution. With the need to enter strenuously- into competition with other
fuels, perhaps more particularly
since
the
1934
Gas
Act,
cumes
also
the
need
to know exactly the fractional
mst
per
1,000
cubic
feet or per
them
of
gas
made,
to
enable
us
to
quote where required low
prices
for special purposes.
Strange
as
it
may seem the intensity
of
competition reaches even statutory
undertakings, and where industry constitutes a large percentage of the whole
output the most careful consideration must
be
given to the
cost
of
manufacture;
in dealing with large
loads
the incident
oi
manufacture is
so
important as
to
influence the
outlook
of
the
gas
industry
as
a
whole.
It
cannot be
stated
that
a
standard cost system
is
recognised.
but
the most
up-to-date and progressive undertakings
do,
however, work on
similar
lines.
From
this
it
can
be
realised that the term
''
Cost of
gas
into holder
"
conveys
certain specific items, and in making comparisons
such
a figure
is
of assistance.
The
''
End
',
Whilst
agreeing that the
"
End
"
of local government in
all
cases
is
a
eal
one, one must hear in mind the commercial and industrial atmosphere of teday,
particularly must
this
be
considered in view
of
the
fact
ht
gas
undertakings
are htly manufacturers lighting
tu
provide low charge
-and
to
secure
higher
efficiencies;
it
seems essential that commercial principles should dominate
trading concerns. Therefore to my mind it appears
that
the
"
End
'I
of trading
concerns is very different from
that
of
the general run
of
"
service."
The
social
"
End
"
to
the
gas
industry
is
limited and is rapidly diminishing
purely
because
modem demands require ever-increasing quantities of
gas
for
industrial purposes, and further, domestic COIIsumers require appliances good
and
cheap and for nothing
if
possible. The great redeeming feature
is,
whether the
concern
ibe
a
statutory company or
a
municipal one, the attention given
to
"
service
"
as
real aid
is
pronounced and distinct entirely from
"
sales
talk."
Tariffs
Our competitors for lighting (the electrical industry) may
be
guilty
of
complicated systems of charge, only intricate calculations from which enable the
layman
to
understand really how the price has
been
arrived at; one
can
go
so
far
even as
saying
that on one side of the street an electrical
tariff
operates differently
from
that
on the
other
side
of
the
street, but only in
one
or
two
isolated
cases
may
this
be
said
of
gas
suppliers.
Stnndavd
Charge
It
does not seem logical
to
supply
gas
ad
libitum
to each domestic consumer:
it
is
assumed that such supply
is
nut suggested or even contemplated for industrial
purposes.
With
reference particularly
to
domestic supplies the
econornicS
of such use
must
be
examined-the housewife generally carefully considers the amount
of
338

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