Irish quarry body and Customs unite to solve Aggregates Levy row

The Quarry Products Association Northern Ireland (QPANI) and Customs & Excise (C&E) officials have given their full commitment to solving the Aggregates Levy situation in Northern Ireland.

A delegation from QPANI flew to Manchester to meet with C&E, where they were informed of a number of things:

• Evidence of on the ground enforcement will be seen within the next few weeks;
• A press release has been issued to construction publications in Northern Ireland informing construction companies of their obligations to pay the Levy if they are importing aggregate from the Republic of Ireland;
• Over 50 construction companies have been visited to date;
• C&E will link into other government bodies in order to gather information on tenders being issued with aggregate being used.

"C&E never once questioned or challenged anything we put forward and gave us its full commitment to solving the problem in Northern Ireland," said a QPANI spokesman.

"In response we said that in order to achieve the goal of this commitment it should advise the chancellor and the economic secretary, who base their decisions on advice from officials, that the tax in Northern Ireland is flawed and that the QPANI proposal represents the best solution to both protect the NI quarry industry and achieve the objectives of the tax."

QPANI propose that the tax should be reduced from £1.60 to 32p per tonne for all aggregates. It claims that by reducing the tax more people would pay thereby gathering the same revenue.