EU clears most exemptions from UK aggregates levy

BRUSSELS, March 27 (Reuters) - The European Commission on Friday said it had cleared all but one of the exemptions or tax relief from the aggregates levy introduced by Britain in 2002.

The British aggregates levy is a tax on aggregates, a material often used in construction, and designed to encourage the use of recycled product and reduce environmental damage.

It is levied on rock, sand or gravel on their first extraction was well as on processed product.

The Commission said on Friday it had concluded that only the exemption for shale and spoil was not justified because shale is deliberately extracted to produce aggregates. The beneficiaries of the exemption for shale and spoil should therefore pay the money back.

The Commission's investigation focused on whether shale, slate and clay were deliberately extracted for use as aggregates and whether exemptions for by-products from the extraction of shale, slate, china clay, ball clay and from industrial combustion or from metal smelting (industrial slag) were justified. (Reporting By Philip Blenkinsop)