The Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) has called on chancellor Gordon Brown to use this week’s Budget to levy a one-off windfall tax on the excess profits of the giant oil companies and bank.
Tony Woodley, T&G general secretary, said a sum of up to £5.5bn should be raised and dedicated to expanding the government’s £400m Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS), which was set up to help those whose pension schemes had gone into insolvency.
The biggest five banks in the UK had made total global profits of £28bn and the big four oil companies had made £38bn across the world, according to the T&G.
Woodley said a windfall tax would “bring justice for the pensions robbery”.
“With the Budget just a couple of days away, and, the likelihood of a general election, a couple of months away, now is the time for the chancellor to be both prudent and bold,” he said. “A one-off windfall tax based on the windfall of higher oil prices for the likes of Shell and BP would be justified and popular.”
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