All pig-keepers in government’s climate change discount scheme — which cuts climate change tax by 80 per cent — should check their energy bills, the NPA says.

A survey of 11 per cent of scheme members has found over 40 percent have not been receiving their climate change levy discount from their energy supplier.

If this is projected to the entire membership, it is worth £100,000 a year in unclaimed tax relief — and as claims may be back-dated three years, the total figure will be around £300,000.

Producers, who want to check whether they have been receiving their discount, should contact FEC Services which administers the discount scheme for the pig industry.

For a fee of around £200 it will complete the necessary paperwork and claim the sum owed, which even for a small unit may run well into four figures.

The tax refunds are due because in the past around 40 per cent of scheme members may have omitted to tell their energy supplier they were eligible for the discount.

The forms notifying energy suppliers that discount is due have a life of only five years. So if a member joined the scheme when it started in 2001, his form will have expired in 2006.

Even those who did tell their energy supplier will still be owed money, if they subsequently changed supplier but did not remember to send the information again.

The unpaid tax refunds were unearthed by FEC Services when it invited scheme members to send their energy bills for checking.

Although £300,000 is a significant sum, it is overshadowed by the sum FEC Services estimates pig-keepers have saved since the discount scheme started ten years ago — over £8 million.

This is made up of £2.1 million of tax discount plus another £6m from members introducing energy-saving measures.