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29 Feb 2000
Parliament's Environmental Audit Committee - set up by Labour as an 'environmental watchdog' - fears the damage that big business lobbying is doing to the Government's green tax agenda. Important green tax proposals on pesticides and aggregates have been shelved ahead of the Budget, in favour of weak or unworkable voluntary agreements.
And the EAC's report shows that where the Government has sensibly insisted on legally binding agreements with a measurable target - in the case of the Climate Change Levy -businesses have proved unwilling to sign-up.
The Quarry Products Association's voluntary scheme has twice been rejected by the Treasury as failing to be credible alternative to an aggregates tax. Now the industry has been split by the formation of a separate trade body set up by smaller firms which are not
prepared to even commit themselves to the the QPA's scheme.
FOE also shares the EAC's concern that heavy corporate lobbying has led to many sectors that are not genuinely energy intensive being offered reduced Climate Change Levy rates in exchange for a negotiated agreement.
Commenting, Charles Secrett, Executive Director of Friends of the Earth said:
"This report is a clear warning to Gordon Brown not to retreat from his commitment to green tax reform. Voluntary schemes being put forward by pesticide producers and quarrying firms are far too weak to provide a credible alternative to the tax proposals put forward by the Government.
After the UK's first truly green budget in 1999 the Iron Chancellor must show his mettle, dismiss these ineffective voluntary agreements and continue with the important process of greening the tax system".
Contact details:
Friends of the Earth
26-28 Underwood St.
LONDON
N1 7JQ
Tel: 020 7490 1555
Fax: 020 7490 0881
Web: www.foe.co.uk/feedback.html
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