Carbon tax deadline beyond reach

The controversial carbon tax
is looming large – but likely to
be late.
Following a policy paper
from the department of
mineral and energy affairs
– which met with a negative
reaction – it is currently in the
form of a first-draft carbon
tax bill. It has been under
public scrutiny and the various
submissions entered.
“We expect another draft
will be published before it is
finalised into Act form,” said
Matthew Thornton-Dibb,
associate in the environmental
law department of legal
firm Norton, Rose,
Fulbright.
And, with
Minerals and
Energy pushing
for a 2017
implementation
of the tax, that
finalised format
would have to
be ready before
year-end, he
added – while stressing the
amount of work that had to be
done before that.
But he’s convinced that
this deadline is beyond
reach – citing just
too many changes
having to be
made before it
can be met.
Add to that
changes that
will also have
to be made to
regulations
surrounding
greenhouse gas reporting
before the carbon tax act can
be practically implemented,
and Thornton-Dibb thinks it
will, therefore, be pushed back
further than 2017.
One thing is for certain,
he told FTW, and that is that
industry is dead set against
the tax – something that
would cost a massive amount
for industries as they battle
to comply.
In basic terms, according to
Thornton-Dibb, the tax is to
be levied as R120 per tonne of
CO2 emitted, but with lots of
highly complex technical ways
in which a company can reduce
its tax liability.
The full focus of the tax is
on Source 1 emissions – those
a factory directly produces –
and not Source 2 emissions,
where an energy producer’s
own pollution output is
brought into the tax story as
an indirect factor.
But it would still cost
industry a lot of money to
comply with all the emission
controls, Thornton-Dibb added.