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BAA welcomes tax talk
Page 12
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TIIE BRITISH AGGREGATES Association (BAA) has welcomed a government report which questions how well the aggregates levy is working in Northern Ireland.
The association believes the government will now try to change the tax in Northern Ireland and is hoping this might be the forerunner for reforming the tax in the UK as a whole.
Robert Durward, the association's director, says: "The aggregates levy has proved immensely damaging to the aggregates industry in Northern Ireland, encouraging the illegal use of untaxed aggregate and a significant rise in unlicensed quarrying. Customs and Excise has been unable to properly enforce the levy. The Treasury itself admitted to the committee that it is unlikely to meet the environmental aims of the levy in Northern Ireland."
The association argues that one of the main problems with the levy is that its rate of il.60 a ton makes the cheapest aggregate virtually unusable because the tax is more than its selling price.
To solve the problem in Northern Ireland the government is expected to propose a cut in the levy to 32p per ton, with environmental conditions. The BAA says mainland sites already meet those standards.