BAA: Significant progress In Aggregates Levy challenge

The 887 British Aggregates Association (BAA) says it has successfully overcome two challenges to appeals against the Aggregates Levy that it has lodged at the EU General Court. The challenges, on admissibility, were made by the EU Commission supported by the UK government.

BAA director Robert Durward said: “This has been yet another example of the Commission and the Treasury acting in concert to have our case delayed or struck out on technical grounds. They have tried every trick in the book to avoid having to justify this Levy before a proper court of law but they are fast running out of places to hide.”  

The BAA is appealing the 2015 Commission decision on AGL exemptions, with the exception of shale aggregate, complied with state aid law, despite what the Association says is a ‘great deal of evidence to the contrary’.

The association is also appealing the 2014 decision by the Commission that the Northern Ireland Aggregates Levy Credit Scheme (ALCS )was compatible with state aid law while admitting that the ALCS might not comply with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The Commission claimed that any breach could be rectified retrospectively by limited repayment to UK based importers. A position regarded in legal circles, says the BAA, as being ‘highly questionable.’

Durward added: “Since we first launched our challenge in 2002, we have been encouraged by several judgments which have strengthened our position. One, in particular, opens the door to the industry recovering repayment of the Levy in full from 2002 onwards under the Boiron principle. Our challenge to the Phase II Decision on the Aggregates Levy Scheme in Northern Ireland is also well-founded in law. Another win for the BAA on the ALCS would have far-reaching and serious consequences for the NI quarry industry.

“Our industry has experienced a great deal of consolidation over the years with the majors buying up SME operators, often to close them down. Before the introduction of the Levy, this process had all but stopped and the SMEs were staging a comeback. However, family companies are again succumbing to the majors and the Levy has undoubtedly played a part in this process. SME companies with only one or two sites find it difficult to cope with a tax set at such a high level.”     

Although the BAA says it is prepared to see this case through to its inevitable conclusion, it has written to the new UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, restating its preference for a negotiated settlement.