Dr. Kelly de Bruin:

I want to comment on the relevant topics. The Deputy referred to the impact of diesel and petrol excise duties on revenue receipts. The numbers I gave include that impact. If we do not recycle the revenue and use it only to reduce the Government debt, the net impact will be negative.

If we recycle revenue, that decrease in excise duties will be compensated by an increase in other sales tax receipts and so the net impact will be positive.

On the issue of fuel poverty, Bercholz and Roantree looked specifically at fuel poverty and they found the ten-year increase in the carbon tax would increase fuel poverty by about 1%, but the redistribution scheme can compensate for that.