Dead end in fight to scrap port taxes
Jul 1 2009 by Sue Scott, Evening Gazette
CAT (UK), the Teesport-based company locked in a bitter row with the Government over a £500,00 backdated rates bill, said it had exhausted all political avenues in getting the cost overturned.
MD Stuart Warren said the company, the UK’s only importer for Renault cars, would now challenge the rating authority through the appeals process.
The decision followed a last-ditch attempt by Tory front bench spokesman in the Lords, former Teesside MP Michael Bates, to prevent businesses being tapped for backdated taxes if the underpayment was a result of bureaucratic bungling.
Having won an amendment to the Business Rates Supplement Bill, which established the principle, ministers invoked an obscure 17th century parliamentary procedure blocking any further attempts to frustrate the legislation.
Accusing the Government of using “underhand Parliamentary tactics” to defend an “unjust tax”, Mr Bates said: “I have written to Lord Mandelson urging him to use his role in Government to cut through Whitehall red tape and find a solution. I am calling on him to come to Parliament and set out a process for finding a swift and fair outcome for this unnecessary crisis.
“We should not be using 17th century tactics to protect the red faces of bureaucrats who have created this mess. We need serious 21st century solutions and I urge the Government to work with us to agree on one.”
A Valuation Office bungle led to millions of pounds of unbilled taxes dating back to 2005 being clawed back from port businesses. Faced with the prospect of firms going bust, the Government gave them eight years to pay, but huge sums show on their balance sheets as a liability.
