Emissions: Coastal shippers say foreigners avoid ETS costs
July 14th, 2010
The Shipping Federation says the Emissions Trading Scheme’s carbon charge impost on coastal shippers is putting NZ’s domestic fleet at a competitive disadvantage compared with international shippers. International shippers, operating on coastal routes as they carry out their NZ run, don’t face an ETS charge. The Federation estimates on the Auckland-Lyttelton run, based on a $25/tonne carbon charge, an extra $20-$25 per container will have to be charged to cover the tax. Ever since the then Labour government mooted the ETS carbon charge a couple of years ago, domestic shippers have argued like export-oriented manufacturers, there needs to be some form of tax relief.
Federation executive director Sam Buckle says “there’s no question ETS will have an effect. From the outset of our discussions with the Labour and National governments, we’ve asked how they’re going to address the issue.” Buckle says the matter is not going to go away, and the next review of the ETS in 2011 will provide the next formal opportunity to look at it. Until then, he says the Federation will continue to work behind the scenes and argue the case for some form of relief for domestic shippers. Buckle hasn’t yet checked how the federation’s members are dealing with the ETS charge. Some domestic shippers are attempting to absorb the cost in the short term, while others are being more explicit in passing it on to their clients.
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