[11
SEP 00] FUEL PROTESTS
Fuel Costs Are Damaging Businesses - Chamber
Business
leaders in Coventry and Warwickshire have backed a national
campaign to reduce the cost of fuel duty, saying the current
costs will end up hurting trade.
The British
Chambers of Commerce (BCC) is demanding the UK Government
enforces a temporary drop in fuel duty to stabilise fuel prices.
It wants a
sliding scale of fuel duty brought in to balance the effect of
constantly changing prices. This would mean that as oil prices
rise, duty should fall.
Alan Durham,
chamber membership director for The Coventry and Warwickshire
Chamber of Commerce, Training and Enterprise, said:
“Businesses
throughout Coventry and Warwickshire are suffering along with
consumers from the highest fuel process in Europe, and
something must be done to buck the trend of escalating prices
and lack of value for money.
“The
current fuel price is without doubt damaging the
competitiveness of British business as companies are having to
continually find further funds to pay for the increasing cost
of petrol.
“This is
forcing other areas of the business to be neglected and is
therefore dangerous to the economic health of companies,
especially ones who rely on motorway transportation to deliver
goods or act as haulage agents.
“Reducing
fuel duty would not involve a shortfall in government revenue,
instead it would provide relief to industry and help to dampen
the prospect of inflationary pressure, and keep interest rates
from rising.”
Reacting to the
fuel protests which are gathering pace across Europe, OPEC
announced that oil production would rise by three per cent or
800,000 barrels a day, which could cut costs. But some fear this
is too little to have any real effect.
[11 SEP 00] FUEL
BLOCKADES SPREAD TO WARWICKSHIRE
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