Paler shade of green
28 Mar 08
The persecution of the plastic bag took the headlines, but for a Budget trumpeted as embracing environmental issues, the substance was harder to pin down
The persecution of the plastic bag took the headlines, but for a Budget trumpeted as embracing environmental issues, the substance was harder to pin down.
Companies have been asked to cut down on plastic bag use. Anyone who buys a high-polluting, gas guzzling car will be hit with a “showroom tax” of £950 in the first year, while the zero rate for low-emission vehicles was extended. The 2p per litre increase in fuel duty was delayed until October.
Neil Whyte, tax partner at PKF said: “We’re falling further behind in the battle against climate change, and the Chancellor fiddled while the environment overheated.”
Whyte dismissed the excise duty and plastic bag measures as “not particularly significant” and pointed out that they are both deferred until 2009. “Other green measures were merely ‘under consultation’ or deferred for even longer periods,” he said The air passenger duty airport tax scheme is to be replaced with a tax per flight system from 2009 but the Chancellor said revenue from aviation duty would rise by 10 per cent in the second year of the new tax system.
From 1 April, the capital allowance system offers 100 per cent first year tax credits for designated energy-saving and environmentally beneficial plant and machinery.
First year capital allowances of 100 per cent will be available for new company cars that produce less than 110g/km of C02, for equipment to let vehicles use alternative fuels, and for energy-efficient and water-saving technologies.
And the government wants all new non-domestic buildings to be zero carbon from 2019, and new public sector buildings from 2018.
Frank Sangster, head of KPMG's environmental tax and incentives group, said: “Considering the Chancellor's promise back in December to put sustainability at the heart of the Budget his announcements amounted to no more than minor changes.”