By IRNA,
London : Calls for the government to levy a windfall tax on the excessive profits of energy and oil companies are gathering widespread support in the UK.
A cross-section of 20 politicians, academics, think-tanks, environmentalists, trade unionists and other campaign groups said they believed “the moment is right for a one-off windfall tax to guarantee social and environmental justice.”
“The spike in oil prices has created substantial unearned profits for the oil and energy companies,” the group, led by three MPs, said in a joint call published in the Guardian newspaper Wednesday.
Their support comes as main energy providers in Britain have seen profits rise from Pnds 557 million (Dlrs 1.1 billion) in 2003 to over Pnds 3bn.
At the same time, gas prices have risen by 100 per cent since 2000 and electricity prices by 61 per cent, with the households in the UK spending an average of more than Pnds 1,200 on energy bills.
The joint call warned that while 2.5 million UK families are estimated to live in fuel poverty in Britain, the energy industry has spent just Pnds 50m a year in combating it and only agreed to raise this to Pnds 150m by 2010, despite their excess profits.
Their argument was that there was already precedents for levying windfall taxes as Labour did on the profits of privatized utilities when it came to power in 1997 and the Conservatives also did against main banks back in 1981.
“Revenues from the tax should be ringfenced to deliver social and environmental justice for all. Some should be targeted at families in or facing fuel poverty,” they said.
The warning was also that there was a lack of investment in renewable energy to help Britain become energy-independent and more carbon-neutral.
Much of the money, they suggested, should be used to “kick-start a national program of home energy efficiency and installing renewable energy, starting with the homes of the fuel-poor.” On Tuesday, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling indicated that the government was not considering to impose a windfall tax, but instead was focusing on trying to tackle fuel poverty in talks with energy companies.