ONE way of addressing the problems of rising oil prices would be to set up a "pendulum" system that would counter any percentage rise in crude oil by an equal percentage drop in duty.
This would allow the Government to keep its revenues on target and would ultimately be beneficial to the country's overall competitiveness, both here and, more importantly, abroad. Or is this too simple? This could eventually align us to EEC duty rates which they complain are too high but which are a lot lower than ours.
It seems to me to be patently unfair for the Government to receive in excess of £2 billion in extra VAT and duty since March and then to claim that it is the overall increase in crude oil that has caused the problem and to refuse to address it until next March, by which time the extra revenue will amount to nearly £4 billion.
We should not lose sight of the fact that we are an oil producing nation, and this surely allows us a certain amount of flexibility.
HARRY JOHNSTON,
chairman and MD,
R & G Construction (M/c) Ltd,
Prestwich.
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