Political pressure to actualize windfall tax

The UK government business secretary, John Hutton confirmed that in due course of time, the treasury is coming up with a proposal to inflict windfall tax on companies that produce energy. While talking to BBC radio, he also said that the chancellor, Alistair Darling has to decide the final course of action. Hutton showed his full faith on the chancellor’s commitment towards the issue and commented that he is looking at the problem from all possible angles and he will come up with a fair proposal.

Many political leaders are putting pressure on the government to introduce a windfall tax. The origin of this political concern resides in the fact that consumer bills are increasing swiftly, whereas the energy companies are making enormous profits. Recently, British Gas has announced a price rise of 35% for its consumers. At the same time, its parent company, Centrica announced that they have made a half yearly profit of 992 million pounds.

Cross-party business committee is requesting to finalize a procedure to evaluate windfall profits and tax terms related to it. At the same time, some ministers have apprehensions about the fact that these companies will further increase consumer prices in order to compensate with new tax terms.

The business society is firmly opposing the Windfall tax. Today, John Hutton has also addressed the fact that if we want to attract investment in our country, we need to invest in our energy development system. He also shared that these power generation companies need capital investment and we must encourage that.