APPENDIX 8
Memorandum submitted by Councillor Joe
Byrne, a Member of the New Northern Ireland Assembly
As a member of the new Northern Ireland Assembly
for the constituency of West Tyrone I have been approached by
several owners of petrol filling stations in the North West area
who are extremely concerned about the Chancellor of the Exchequer's
increases in fuel excise duties announced in his recent Budget.
As you are well aware, these increases are having a severely damaging
effect upon the livelihoods of many filling station owners across
the entire border region as the gross disparity in fuel prices
between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic is causing many
people to travel across the border to purchase petrol and diesel.
Although I am very conscious of the fact that
the Chancellor has to take into consideration environmental concerns
because of the commitments given by the then British Government
at the Kyoto Summit back in 1990, and I am generally supportive
of policies designed to protect the environment, I nevertheless
do believe the policy of increasing fuel duties by 6 per cent
annually, as outlined in the Chancellor's budget, will have an
extremely detrimental effect upon our local economy. For example
in my own constituency of West Tyrone six filling stations, two
in Omagh, two in Sion Mills and two in Strabane, have already
closed down in the previous 18 months and the recent budgetary
increases in excise duties have left many more on the verge of
closure.
These increases have also exacerbated the problem
of the illegal importation of fuel from the Irish Republic into
Northern Ireland and I believe you have already heard submissions
from the Road Haulage Association and the Petrol Retailers Association
and are due to present a report in the near future on this issue.
The combined effect of cross-border smuggling and legitimate cross-border
purchases could result in an estimated net annual loss to the
Exchequer of £200 million.
Under the ad hoc title of the North West
Petrol Retailers Forum, filling station owners from the North
West have to date held two public meetings chaired by myself in
Strabane, which were attended by senior representatives of the
Petrol Retailers Association and the Valuation and Land Agency
to discuss possible ways of dealing with these serious issues.
During these meeting we debated ways of co-ordinating a lobby
strategy and floated various proposals designed to soften the
effect of the Chancellor's proposals. As an initial measure we
are seeking a rates re-assessment for filling stations with the
Valuation and Lands Agency as their throughput gallonage has declined
sharply since their previous valuations. Indeed, since the recent
Budget some filling stations in the North West have experienced
a drop in throughput gallonage of between 50 and 80 per cent.
As Northern Ireland is in the unique position
as being the only region in these islands which has a land border
with another EU Member State, we also discussed the possibility
of the introduction of some form of price harmonisation between
fuel prices in the North and the Irish Republic. I believe there
is a European precedent for such a proposal as a form of price
harmonisation has been successfully introduced along the Dutch-German
border and a similar measure could be introduced in Northern Ireland.
In my opinion, Northern Ireland should be treated
as a special case because of its particular geographic and economic
circumstances and I hope you will give the above points I have
outlined serious consideration and recommend some effective remedial
measures when drafting your report on the illegal smuggling of
fuel.
23 April 1999
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