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Londra Gazete, 03 November 2022 LondraGazete.com/English 7

BP profit jump sparks calls

for bigger windfall tax

THE government is facing hanging his head in shame that it had paid no windfall tax in the
growing calls to raise more mon- he has left billions of windfall UK because it had invested mil-
ey from the windfall tax on ener- profits in the pockets of oil and lions of pounds here. But it said
gy firms after oil giant BP report- gas companies, while the British it expected to start paying the
ed a huge rise in global profits. people face a cost-of-living cri- levy next year. BP expects to pay
Elon Musk says Twitter blue tween July and September, more sis," he said. $2.5bn in tax on its North Sea
BP made $8.2bn (£7.1bn) be-
business this year, which includes
Alok Sharma, UK's COP pres-
tick to be revamped than double its profit for the ident and the former Business the windfall levy.
Secretary, tweeted: "We need to
The company also plans to buy
same period last year.
ELON Musk has said Twitter will Twitter Head of Global Policy Com- Surging oil and gas prices have raise more money from a windfall back an additional £2.5bn of its
charge $8 (£7) monthly to Twitter munications, warned that introduc- led to big gains for energy firms tax on oil and gas companies and shares.
users who want a blue tick by their ing a fee for blue ticks could make it but are also fuelling a rise in the actively encourage them to invest So-called share buybacks help
name indicating a verified account. harder to spot disinformation. "With cost of living. in renewables." boost a company's share price
As part of changes after a $44bn disinformation as an issue that a lot BP expects to pay $800m in UK Last week, Shell revealed that and are popular with investors.
(£38bn) takeover of the social media of platforms are struggling with, ver- windfall taxes this year while ri-
site, Mr Musk said it was "essential ification is one of the ways that jour- val Shell recently said it will pay
to defeat spam/scam". A blue tick nalists, academic researchers and none. The windfall tax was in-
symbol next to a username - normal- some users use to filter out disinfor- troduced by Rishi Sunak in May
ly for high-profile figures - is current- mation or low quality information," when he was chancellor. A Treas-
ly free. The move could make it hard- Mr Wexler told the BBC's Today pro- ury spokesperson said the tax
er to identify reliable sources, say gramme. "If you're offering up blue was expected to raise £17bn this
critics. Mr Musk, the world's richest checks for rent, it makes it harder to year and next "to help fund cost
person, added that paid users would sift through disinformation and find of living support for eight million
have priority in replies and searches, high quality information." Twitter's people".
and half as many advertisements. former method of verifying users for But Ed Miliband, shadow cli-
"Power to the people! Blue for $8/ a blue tick included a short online ap- mate change secretary, said that
month," the billionaire said on Twit- plication form, and was reserved for BPs' profits were "damning evi-
ter, criticising the old method of blue those whose identities were targets dence of the failure of the gov-
tick verification as a "lords and peas- for impersonation, such as celebri- ernment to levy a proper wind-
ants system". But Nu Wexler, former ties, politicians and journalists. fall tax". "Rishi Sunak should be