Two candidates in the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections have given their view on a report which said every person would have been £1,800 fiscally worse off in an Independent Scotland as a result of the oil price decline.
Here, Kevin Stewart, candidate for Aberdeen Central gives his view.
To read Scottish Labour candidate Lewis MacDonald’s view click here.
I doubt any readers will be surprised by these latest attempts by some to politicise the oil and gas sector as yet more time is wasted discussing ‘what ifs’ rather than focusing on the here-and-now and the very real challenges facing the industry.
The fact of the matter is the UK Government still retain full control over the taxation of the oil and gas sector and yet they have failed to act quickly enough or strongly enough to support it as the price of oil fell.
Elected representatives across the SNP have been urging for reform of the fiscal regime for oil since January 2015, but pleas have been ignored for well over a year.
Instead of the right support from a pro-union UK Government, we have all witnessed the berating of SNP voices with the all too familiar chant of “if you were independent.” A bit of hindsight is far more reliable than the kind of economic alchemy we see demonstrated by those who oppose independence.
The UK Government and the successive pro-union Westminster administrations have taken more than £300 billion in tax from the oil and gas sector, yet in its time of need they have not made access available to finance for exploration, nor tax reliefs to encourage it.
What we and the energy sector want to hear and see actioned is substantial reductions in the headline rate of tax in order to have a regime that is actually fit for the competitive global industry.
Oil and Gas UK has said fourfold increase is needed in exploration to ensure that the 20 billion barrels that are still there are recoverable.
Those who oppose independence will try to detract from the real issues facing Scotland, and I’m sure they will try to insult the SNP as they do that.
It’s time to move on and remove these barriers to diplomatic discussions, just as the UK Government should remove fiscal barriers for oil recovery in the North Sea.
We have been clear that we accepted the outcome of the vote on September 18th 2014 and we have carried on working hard for the people of Scotland every day since.
Not only do we listen to the people of Scotland, we also listen to leading bodies and credible representatives of the oil and gas sector.
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