Are you ready for the levy?

摘要

Turbines, discounted tariffs and energy audits could help your business weather the Climate Change Levy storm. The Climate Change Levy (CCL) is a new tax coming into force this April to put pressure on industry to reduce greenhouse emissions. Lastinguntil 2010 (subject to EU approval) it targets energy use in industry, the public sector and agriculture. With the average dairy farm paying 4-5p/kWh for electricity, the levy will add about 10 percent to bills, based on a tax of 0.43p/kWh. In addition,there is a tax of 0.15p/kWh for gas or coal, and 0.07p/kWh for LPG. Yet it's not such bad news. Farm Energy Centre manager, Andrew Kneeshaw, says that the actual cost of electricity has fallen considerably over the past seven years, so he doesn't see the CCL having such an impact on farm costs, especially when combined with the recent, more open market in utilities offering discounts of up to 20 percent. And it may focus business minds on the benefits of energy efficiency.