A new report showing households are experiencing "energy hardship" should prompt the Government to scrap punitive energy levies that drive up power bills, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams says, “Last year, we revealed that energy users across the country have given large companies like McDonalds, Lion, and Fonterra over $7 million since 2014, via EECA’s ‘Support for large energy users’ programme.”

“These grants are meant to help corporates manage their energy use, but private businesses already have a strong incentive to save energy. Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to help them out, especially not when we’re being hammered with far higher energy prices at home – including levies applied by the Energy Authority.”

“Here’s an idea, why doesn’t the Government scrap the EECA tax applied to everyone’s energy bills before it spends yet more money on its reports and working groups? Taxing consumers to pay for EECA, to give it away to large corporates and run condescending ‘energy spot’ ads telling us to use less power is nuts.”

“The Labour Government can prove it care for households struggling to pay energy bills by scrapping both the levies and the corporate handouts that they fund.”

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