The fears arose from a report into the impact of
the levy on the manufacturing industry, conducted by Scottish Engineering in
conjunction with the Engineering Employers Federation and Oxford Economic Forecasting.
Bryan Bateman, the Paper Federation's director of special projects, said
that CCL costs to the paper industry were linked to its agreement of an 80%
reduction in the rate with the government.
"To my knowledge there are no proposed increases forecast for the CCL," Bateman said.
The report found that 40% of energy used in
manufacturing was charged at the full rate of the levy. Higher winter energy bills this year were set to push the net increase in additional costs to over £100m.
Bateman said that most of the concerns expressed in the report seemed to apply to industries that had been unable to secure reduction agreements with the government, unlike the paper industry.
The BPIF's director of training and commercial products, Andy Brown, said: "One of the things we have tried to tackle is obtaining reductions in levies for our members, having established our own CCL scheme."
He said the BPIF's only surprise was that more firms had not signed up to its scheme, which has nearly 100 companies registered.
"My advice to anyone is to look at how much you are paying now, and how much you could be saving in a scheme such as ours," said Brown.
