(LD):...Against this
background, we must look at subsidies enjoyed by the sector. Of
course, the Government insist that they do not give subsidies to
fossil fuels, yet the UK’s tax regime makes it the most
profitable country in the world for oil and gas companies,
according to a report by Rystad Energy in January 2021. Since
signing the Paris agreement, the UK has given £4 billion to oil
and gas companies—and I thank the NGOs UPLIFT and Paid to Pollute
for the figures. In the tax years 2015-16 and 2016-17, the
Treasury gave more money to oil companies than it took from them
in taxes. Here is a mind-boggling figure: in 2019, the UK
received $1.72 in taxes for each barrel of oil, while at the same
time and under the same conditions, Norway received $21.35 per
barrel of oil. Here is another mind-boggling fact: Shell paid
$1.8 billion in tax to Norway in 2020 but received from the UK
Government £99.1 million, according to the company’s own annual
report on payments to Governments. There are other examples, but
time is short and the list is long, so I will move on.
I will quickly mention decommissioning. The UK taxpayer, not the
polluters, pays the decommissioning costs of abandoned oil
structures. The UK Government call this a tax rebate, but this
process meets the WTO, International Energy Agency and IMF
definitions of a subsidy. HMRC estimates that the cost to the UK
taxpayer will be £18.3 billion—I think that is a gross
underestimate. No wonder the risks of stranded assets are not a
deterrent to the shameless companies pushing for new licences,
because they are a licence to print money. The Government
subsidise exploration, shareholders pocket dividends, and when
the game is up, the company ups sticks and leaves it to the good
old British taxpayer to pick up the tab. Shame on the Government
for letting this continue. With vested interests whispering in
their ear, it stinks of corruption. None of that tax relief is
benefiting workers in the industry or you and me. We do not see
the impact on our living costs, our energy bills or at the pump.
The RMT union estimates that 12,000 jobs were lost in the
industry in 2020. Compare that to Shell receiving
£99.1 million in tax from the UK in 2020. The company went on to
increase its dividend in 2021, just weeks after announcing plans
to cut 330 North Sea jobs, and CEO Ben van Beurden took home $7
million in 2020. The system is rotten to the core...
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