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Under the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme (LTCS), registered landfill site operators
can claim credit of up to 20 per cent of their landfill tax liability for the
year to environmental bodies (EBs) approved by ENTRUST, the private sector regulator
of the LTCS. They can claim a tax credit worth 90 per cent of that contribution.
The aim of the scheme is to encourage more sustainable waste management practices,
including recycling and to deliver lasting environmental and community benefits.
Summing up the problem, EIC director, Merlin Hyman, said: “The Landfill
Tax Credit Scheme has failed to play a central role in transforming waste management
practices. Urgent reform is therefore now essential to provide greater direction
and focus, particularly in funding to support sustainable waste and resource
management.”
Fast forward to the Budget, and witness the power of positive lobbying, as
Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Paul Boateng, and Environment Minister,
Michael Meacher launched a consultation on possible changes to the LTCS. The
consultation paper seeks views on the priorities for funding as well as potential
funding mechanisms for the scheme. Paul Boateng summed up:
“Consulting on the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme allows us to benefit from
the views and experiences of the waste industry, environmental groups, local
people and other interested stakeholders. We are seeking views on what the priorities
for funding should be from the revenue currently going through the scheme. These
could include sustainable waste management, local community projects or other
wider government objectives. We also want opinions on the best way of delivering
these objectives.”
The Climate Change Levy (CCL), a tax on the business use of energy introduced
in April 2001, was set up to encourage business to improve energy-efficiency
and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas.
Again, the scheme has been the subject of much debate since its inception,
with one notable objection coming from manufacturer, Linpac, who invited the
afore-mentioned Paul Boateng to visit its plastics and corrugated fibreboard
packaging operations at Featherstone, West Yorkshire. The aim was to allow Mr
Boateng to learn at first hand about the damage being done to the manufacturing
sector by the CCL, which according to Linpac was adversely affecting the competitiveness
of British industry.
Package of measures
The ability for industry to be more competitive has been given a boost in the
Budget, which contains a package of measures associated with the CCL. These
include exemptions for new forms of renewable energy, 80 per cent discounts
for eligible energy-intensive sectors that have signed up to negotiated agreements
to increase energy-efficiency and reduce emissions, and support to help businesses
use energy more efficiently.
The rates of the CCL have been frozen, and in addition to the existing exemption
for renewable forms of energy, the government is exempting two further sources
of energy generation from the CCL in view of their environmental benefits. The
exemptions will cover electricity from combined heat and power (CHP) plants
sold via licensed electricity suppliers and electricity from coal mine methane
(CMM) sold via licensed electricity suppliers.
The government launched the world’s first economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions
trading scheme in April 2002. This new initiative allows participants to meet
emission reduction targets at lowest cost, by reducing their own emissions or,
if it is cheaper, by buying emissions allowances from other participants who
have found it worthwhile to beat their targets.
According to the Budget, ‘The first stage of the UK emissions trading scheme,
which is now underway, is a ‘cap and trade’ scheme. This means that an overall
emissions reduction target is set covering a group of organisations, all of
whom agree to individual targets and receive a corresponding amount of allowances.
Provided the overall target is met, individual company emissions are unimportant.
Participants in the scheme can therefore achieve their targets in a flexible
way by choosing to meet their target by reducing their own emissions; reduce
their emissions below their target and sell or bank the excess allowances; or
let their emissions remain above their target and buy allowances from other
participants.’
The Budget continues: ‘Emissions trading in the UK will develop further this
year when organisations will be able to generate emissions allowances through
specific emission reduction projects, and sell these allowances to participants
in the trading scheme. Companies in CCL negotiated agreements will be able to
trade allowances in order to meet their emissions reductions targets at the
end of this year.’
This year’s Budget continues the theme of environmental enhancement, with some
changes being made to the charges which have caused the most headaches for British
industry, but it seems that companies are still suffering as a result of taxation
which stifles their ability to be competitive, both in the UK and in Europe.
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