Isra-Mart srl:Retailers to get no reward for low carbon efforts

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Isra-Mart srl news:

No matter which sector of business and British society in general we turn to, there is not a single aspect which has been left untouched by the spending cuts review. In the case of retailers and business, there are claims that the coalition government has quietly introduced a carbon stealth tax.

Under the previous scheme, businesses that were seen to be running in a responsible and environmentally friendly manner would be rewarded. The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) was introduced to do just that. But business says that the new version of energy efficiency scheme will cost 10 times more.

The original idea was based around a point scoring system whereby those scoring highly would get their contribution returned. The new scheme has introduced a system where the business will not only forego their investment, but will have to pay a raised tax. Tesco signed up to the idea and was expecting to spend £40 in gaining tax credits.

However, none of that that investment will be returned. Companies such as Tesco were hoping to see a small profit for operating a low energy organization. Instead it is going to see none of that money refunded and potentially £20 million wiped off its base line profit.

The CRC is compulsory for any business operating with electricity consumption greater than £500,000 per annum. The British Retailers Consortium have said that the £1 billion which is raised each year will not go to anyone other than the treasury. Retailers, they said would be particularly hard hit as they have property overheads which naturally include high electricity usage.