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Show Community Sen ice Release In two important orders, OPA this -week eaiaDltsheu uonar and-centg ceiiing prices on beef, veal lamb, and mutton at retail and placed price ceilings on used trucks for the first lime, according accord-ing to Hamer S. Culp chairman of the Salt Lake City War Price and Rationing Board. "The retail moat price order, which also requires that meat be sold according to grade, coming as it does on the heels of the pork ceiling price order lest week, completes com-pletes Ol'A's retail meat price program pro-gram to protect consumers and at the same time deal a fatal blow to meat black markets," the chairman said. "Retail sales above ceiling prices are the most obvious identifying mark of a black market." According to the regulation which becomes effective April 15, retail butchers may not charge more ,for the 102 cuts of beef veal, lamb, and mutton in five officially established grades of beef and veal, four gardes of lamb and three grades of mutton, than the ceiling prices named on the official OPA price charts which must be posted in the store. As in the case of the pork ceiling ceil-ing price order, the new regula-tiontion regula-tiontion sets one price for independent inde-pendent stores doing an annual volume of business under $250,000 and another, one cent to three three cents lower, for all other stores. Following are prices of typical popular grade A cuts of meat: Leg of Lamb, 42 or 40 cents per pound. Veal cutlet, 52 or 50 cents per pound. Porterhouse steak, 62' or 60 cents per pound. Hamburger, Hamburg-er, 32 or 31 cents per pound. In the other price regulation cited by the chairman, ceilings are placed on prices of used trucks. According to the regula-l tion, a used truck may not be sold for more than a specified percentage of its sale price when new, the percentage allowed depending de-pending on the age of the truck.! For trucks sold on an "as-is" without guarantee, these percentages percent-ages range from 90 percent of original sale price for trucks less than six months old to 53 percent for trucks 30 to 36 months old, and 26 percent for trucks more than 72 months old. In order to encourage dealers to recondition old trucks and marke them available for use, ceilings may be charged where premium prices above the "as-is" the truck is guaranteed for 30 days or 1,000 miles. In this case 5 percent may be added plus the cost of parts, labor, and material used in the reconditioning. Even when this is done, however, certain cer-tain percentages of the original sale price may not be exceeded. These perectnages, known as absolute ab-solute ceilings," range from 97 percent for a truck 6 months old or less to 75 percent for one 30 to 36 months old and 68 percent for one more than 60 months old. "It is expected that two purposes pur-poses will be achieved by the used us-ed truck price ceilings, the lncal board chairman said. Activities of speculators who have been boosting prices in some instances to over 200 percent of their normal nor-mal value will be stopped and the order will .result in the release re-lease of many used vehicles that have been withheld from sale in anticipation of exorbitant prices and profits." m . |