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Timms: "Full steam ahead" for 50p levy
23 Sep 2009 | 14.30 Europe/London
Rumours of the death of the 50p per month tax on copper phone lines appear to have been exaggerated.
Stephen Timms, the minister responsible for Digital Britain announced this morning that it will be a key part of a finance bill that will be presented to the commons when parliament reconvenes after the party conference season.
Timms has forecast that this, crucially, will mean the new levy should be law before the next general election.
However, the Tories have vowed to fight the tax. According to John Whittingdale, Chair of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport select committee his party are opposed to “charging people using old technology to pay for new technology”.
Always on the agenda
Backing for the 50p levy seemed in doubt a couple of weeks ago when Timms gave interviews to the national media suggesting that it would be difficult to make the tax law before the next general election. Hence, when questioned about the back roll the Digital Report appeared to have taken recently he denied that the levy or other recommendations were ‘derailed’ and claimed that, to the contrary, it was a case of ‘full steam ahead’.
It is estimated the levy could raise around £175m per year which could go in to ‘final third’ projects which could push fibre in to areas which may require a subsidy to make a roll out commercially feasible.
The new levy has been welcomed by many within the telecoms industry as an innovative way to fund new projects but many politicians and consumer groups have argued it is unjust to tax everyone with a telephone to pay for better broadband.
Stephen Timms, the minister responsible for Digital Britain announced this morning that it will be a key part of a finance bill that will be presented to the commons when parliament reconvenes after the party conference season.
Timms has forecast that this, crucially, will mean the new levy should be law before the next general election.
However, the Tories have vowed to fight the tax. According to John Whittingdale, Chair of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport select committee his party are opposed to “charging people using old technology to pay for new technology”.
Always on the agenda
Backing for the 50p levy seemed in doubt a couple of weeks ago when Timms gave interviews to the national media suggesting that it would be difficult to make the tax law before the next general election. Hence, when questioned about the back roll the Digital Report appeared to have taken recently he denied that the levy or other recommendations were ‘derailed’ and claimed that, to the contrary, it was a case of ‘full steam ahead’.
It is estimated the levy could raise around £175m per year which could go in to ‘final third’ projects which could push fibre in to areas which may require a subsidy to make a roll out commercially feasible.
The new levy has been welcomed by many within the telecoms industry as an innovative way to fund new projects but many politicians and consumer groups have argued it is unjust to tax everyone with a telephone to pay for better broadband.