Wednesday newspaper round-up: HMRC, VW, Burberry, Tesco

MPs have lambasted HM Revenue & Customs over its customer service, raising fears that its “unacceptable” performance is having an adverse impact on the collection of tax revenues. Meg Hillier, chair of the public accounts committee said: “It beggars belief that, having made disappointing progress on tax evasion and avoidance, the taxman also seems incapable of running a satisfactory service for people trying to pay their fair share.” – Financial Times

Volkswagen’s woes deepened on Tuesday as the German car maker admitted it had found problems involving carbon dioxide emissions on 800,000 cars — including some with petrol engines — at a possible cost to the company of about €2bn. The problems are a different issue from the scandal VW has been facing since September over the excess nitrogen oxide emissions from up to 11m vehicles worldwide fitted with software designed to cheat at emissions tests. Carbon dioxide emissions depend on a vehicle’s fuel consumption, not its emissions-control systems. – Financial Times

Burberry is to invest at least £50m in a new factory to produce its trademark trenchcoats, creating 200 extra jobs in Yorkshire. The facility in Leeds will draw together production of the coats and the gaberdine cloth they are made from – currently made at two separate sites in Castleford and Keighley. – Guardian

Tesco is seeking a new deal with dairy farmers after a chaotic summer for the agriculture industry during which protesters paraded cows around a supermarket. The retailer has written to farmers outlining terms that include reviewing the price it pays every three months rather than every six and ranking suppliers based on their performance, with the worst potentially losing their deals. - Guardian

Brewer SABMiller is expected to ask the Takeover Panel for more time to forge a formal agreement with rival Anheuser-Busch InBev for what would be one of the world’s biggest ever deals. The Takeover Panel has already twice extended the deadline for AB InBev to make a firm offer for Peroni-owner SAB, with the latest expiring at 5pm on Thursday. However, although the situation remains fluid, it is understood that another extension is likely to be sought by FTSE 100-listed SAB to give the two beer giants enough time to agree formal terms of the complex, £68bn deal. They have so far only announced an “agreement in principle”. - Telegraph

Royal Bank of Scotland has been accused of using secret, flawed documents that could have influenced some compensation payouts to victims of the interest rate swaps mis-selling scandal. Secret documents seen by The Times provided by the bank to “independent reviewers” who oversaw redress payouts to victims included a “record” of a sales call that never took place. They also included potentially misleading bank sales literature and an allegedly bogus email. Other customers of the bank allege that RBS produced records of meetings that they claim never took place. – The Times