The prime reason for any eco-tax must be to curb a particular type of pollution.BP’s chief economist, Professor Peter Davies, chair of the group which drew up the paper, said: “Business wishes to play its part in ensuring a clean environment as efficiently and effectively as possible.”Meanwhile, Friends of the Earth unveiled radical budget proposals including a 9 per cent rise in petrol duty and a tax on non-residential private car parking spaces which would raise pounds 400m a year.These and other taxes, along with cuts in the roads programme, would allow a big expansion in energy-saving measures for low-income and pensioner households and a 3-per-cent cut in employers’ National Insurance contributions.FoE’s director, Charles Secrett, said: “This is truly the Chancellor’s last chance to deliver on his environmental promises.”. Companies which find it cheap and easy to curb pollution can sell permits to those which do not.The CBI says any extra revenue raised by eco-taxes must be offset by cuts in other taxes on firms and households. It rejects the idea that pollution taxes are justified in order that taxes on employment and income should be cut. Their statements came just days before a Budget in which Chancellor Gordon Brown is expected to give a further nudge to anti-pollution taxes.
Petrol prices will rise well above the rate of inflation, and it is thought that the tax break for company cars will be curbed.
In a consultation paper, the CBI said it had no objection in principle to eco-taxes or tradable permits – a system yet to be tried out in Britain in which companies are issued with permits entitling them to spew out a certain quantity of pollution.They can then trade these permits between themselves at a price established in a free market. However it is hoping Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, will not choose to impose the new duty until December.Investment column, page 25. FORMING AN unlikely alliance, the Confederation of British Industry and Friends of the Earth yesterday declared themselves in favour of environmental taxes. Not surprisingly, the industrialists were more cautious than the green pressure group.
Gallaher admitted that the proposed European wide ban on advertising and sponsorship would have a big impact on its business. However the group is confident it can circumvent the ban and maintain sales by increasing promotions in shops that sell cigarettes.The Government is expected to announce another rise in tobacco duty next week, equivalent to around 20p for a packet of 20.If the duty is imposed in the next few months then Gallaher admits it could prove a significant drain on profits. “We have in place meritorious defences and continue to have faith in the British justice system We will not be settling any cases,” Mr Wilson said. If people can come together and make a decision then that it the right solution.”However, Gallaher joined BAT in denouncing Government research published earlier this week that passive smoking harms health and can kill “I am saddened This should be judged on science not emotion.
They have not established there is any increase in risk from passive smoking,” said Mr Wilson.Gallaher, along with its main UK rival, Imperial Tobacco, faces the threat of litigation from lung cancer victims in the UK. The legal action comes in the wake of the US tobacco industry’s decision to arrange a settlement with claimants in response to a stream of compensation claims.However, Gallaher said yesterday that the group had no intention of compensating victims and would continue to fight them tooth and nail in the courts. Bootleggers are importing tons of tobacco mainly from Belgium and LuxembourgPeter Wilson, chairman and chief executive of Gallaher, yesterday surprisingly backed the principle of a voluntary ban of smoking at work or in public places “I think it is a matter of common sense. The group claims that the explosion in illegal importation of tobacco is the main reason behind a 4 per cent fall in the cigarette market in 1997.The handrolling tobacco market has also been damaged by illegal imports which now account for three quarters of UK consumption. Analysts estimate the explosion of illegal imports costs the industry tens of millions, while the Government is losing up to pounds 600m a year in lost tax revenues.
Gallaher believes that bootleggers importing cheap cigarettes from Continental Europe now account for 3 per cent of the whole UK market, estimated to be worth more than pounds 10bn a year. “I was informed that I was ‘chunky’ and not suitable for media coverage, he said.
- Reuters, Adelaide.
GALLAHER, the UK’s biggest cigarette manufacturer, with leading brands such as Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut, yesterday warned that the tobacco bootlegging industry is now worth hundreds of millions of pounds a year. Charges of premeditated murder, which carry the death penalty, would be filed against Serm Sakhonrat, 23, once evidence collection is completed.
- AP, Bangkok. AN Australian soldier was ordered off ceremonial duties at the recent world swimming championships because he was too “chunky”. “In my 27 years of service, I have never been so professionally insulted,” saidRay Douglas, who was removed from poolside duties in Perth in January after defence minister Ian McLachlan spotted him on television.
