The UK broke its November borrowing record in an effort to ease energy bills | Daily News Byte

The UK broke its November borrowing record in an effort to ease energy bills

 | Daily News Byte

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The UK public sector borrowed $26.6 billion (£22.0 billion) in November, more than double the figure for the same month last year and the most November since monthly records began in 1993, the UK Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. said. The government is supporting households and businesses affected by the surge in energy prices.

The public sector spent more than it received in taxes and other revenue last month, requiring it to borrow $26.6 billion (£22.0 billion), $16.8 billion (£13.9 billion) more than in November 2021, and the most for any month. On the November record, the Office for National Statistics said.

The UK started making payments under its energy support package plans in October 2022. To date, the government has paid $4.6 billion (£3.8 billion) under The Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS).

During the same month, the UK government also started making payments under the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) for households and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) for businesses across the UK. These payments are recorded as subsidies but at this stage, they are preliminary indicative estimates, which will be revised in the coming months, the National Statistics Office said.

To raise more money to ease energy bills, the UK government this year imposed a windfall tax on the profits of UK North Sea oil and gas operators.

Last month the UK increased the windfall tax by 10 percentage points to 35% from January 1, 2023, while also expanding the tax to include low-cost electricity generators. The government expects an energy profit levy on oil and gas companies to raise more than £40 billion ($48 billion) by the 2027-28 financial year.

A new temporary 45% electricity generator levy, which will be applied to extraordinary returns made by electricity generators, will be introduced from January 1, 2023, and is forecast to raise around $17.2 billion (£14.2 billion) by 2028.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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