Darling rejects 'tax bonanza' claim

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He made the arguments in an interview on the Scottish edition of BBC1's The Politics Show, where he showed no sign of bowing to pressure for an immediate cut in fuel duty.

Mr Darling repeated his pledge to reconsider the planned 2p rise in fuel duty, due to take place in October.

Scotland's SNP government has made the £4 billion windfall claim and it insists the money should be used to help take the strain off hard-pressed consumers and businesses.

But when asked if he accepted the figure, Mr Darling replied: "No, I don't. You can't look at any one tax in isolation. If oil prices go up, that has a knock-on effect on activity in other parts of the economy.

"Very often what happens is the Government may get an increased receipt in one part of the economy but a decrease in another. The fact that the economy has slowed down, the fact the housing market has slowed down, will have an effect on the amount of money that comes in through stamp duty."

Mr Darling said that he had to ensure the economy was balanced and that the level of extra revenue would not be known for some time.

He said: "We will not know until later this year how much money actually comes in because it depends on how much people actually buy. It depends on what is happening in the various parts of the economy."

Scotland's finance secretary, John Swinney, stood by the £4 billion figure and said the UK Treasury was going to rake in an "enormous" amount of money from oil price hikes.

"If the prices carry on at the average they've been at since April, which is $114 a barrel, then there'll be a £4 billion-£5 billion windfall during this financial year for the Chancellor," he told the show.