A cut to fossil subsidies, a compensation mechanism on the price of energy produced by plants and a 20 percent cut in energy-intensive bills in the form of a tax credit. The Council of Ministers of January 21 approved the new Sostegni decree, in the draft of which the 29 articles also deal with the expensive bill. We talk about a measure worth 4 billion without making deviations from the deficit. This at least in intentions. Because according to Senator Antonio Misiani, economic manager of the national secretariat of the Democratic Party, other interventions will be needed during the year and I do not think a budget deviation is avoidable given the size of the necessary resources. To echo him, Giuseppe Conte who says he strongly asked the CDM to take this path.
The compensation mechanism on the price of energy
One of the main innovations that can be read in the draft of the legislative decree that from 1 February to 31 December 2022 a compensation mechanism on the price of energy produced by renewable source plants will lighten, at least in part, the system charges on bills. In practice, the Energy Service Manager (GSE) will calculate the difference between the current prices and the average prices of the energy produced up to 2020 by solar, hydroelectric, geothermal and wind power plants incentivized with old systems. Producers will have to pay the difference on these extra profits to GSE, or they will cash it in if the difference is negative.
Cut to subsidies to fossil fuels
For the first time comes the cut in subsidies to fossil fuels, the most environmentally harmful ones. According to the agencies, the reduction is worth over 105 million euros starting from 2022. These resources will thus be used to finance measures to contain the costs of electricity bills. On this point – which in the draft of the decree entered into the CDM had been left blank – there would have been a strong stance by the Minister of Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani.
Stop system burdens
Stop system charges for the first quarter of the year for companies with available power equal to or greater than 16.5 kw. This measure is worth 1.2 billion euros. To reduce the effects of price increases in the electricity sector – reads the draft of the provision -, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment (Arera) will cancel, for the first quarter of 2022, with effect from 1 January 2022 , the rates relating to general system charges applied to users with available power equal to or greater than 16.5 kW, also connected in medium and high / very high voltage or for public lighting or charging electric vehicles in places accessible to the public . The proposal aims to cancel specific tax relief measures, without creating new or greater burdens for public finance.
Stop to VAT and Irpef payments for suspended activities until January 31st
The draft also includes the stop to the payments of VAT and additional Irpef, for activities that are prohibited or suspended until January 31, 2022. For subjects carrying out business activities, art or profession, having a fiscal domicile, the registered office legal or operational headquarters in the territory of the State, whose activities are prohibited or suspended until January 31, 2022 – it reads – the terms of payments relating to value added tax due in January 2022 are also suspended. terms relating to the payment of withholding taxes and withholdings relating to the regional and municipal surcharge. The suspended payments are made, without the application of penalties and interest, in a single solution by 16 September 2022. No reimbursement for those who have already paid.
Bank of Italy: high bills slow down household consumption
Meanwhile, the Bank of Italy records how the recovery in household consumption continues and will rise by 4.4% this year, even if in the first part of 2022 it will be slowed down by the increase in energy prices and by the evolution of the pandemic which has already induced a more caution in the fourth quarter and in the last few weeks. But if the price of energy remains at current levels, with the same consumption and in the absence of further government interventions, at the end of the year, Italians will have to pay a total bill that could reach 3,000 euros. This is what emerges from the estimates made by the Facile.it observatory, which calculates the disbursement for families in an 80% more (1,300 euros) compared to 2021. A sting that would come after the bloodletting that has already hit the Italians in 2021 given that last year families had to deal with a total bill of over 1,630 euros, or about 400 euros more than in 2020 (+ 32% on an annual basis). The gas bill, which last year exceeded 960 euros, increased by 31% compared to 2020, weighed the most on household budgets. annual basis).
The requests of the CGIL
Meanwhile, the CGIL asks to intervene to calm the bills: necessary and urgent, says the secretary Emilio Miceli. We need immediate refreshment for citizens and businesses. But we also need a structural reform of the electricity bill and an energy model capable of calming the gas market and accelerating investments in renewable energies in order to improve the energy mix and not download costs to the country that have become no longer bearable.
The criticisms
Assoutenti marks the decree as decidedly disappointing and which seems to abandon families to their fate, and which will not provide adequate protection against expensive bills. The association has announced that it is ready for a strike on bills, that is to say self-reduction. Also for Codacons, the mountain gave birth to the mouse. The measures contained in the draft of the decree seem to go in the only direction of supporting large companies, completely forgetting families and small businesses. – affirms the president Carlo Rienzi -. We can only express our great disappointment at the measures envisaged by the decree, which will not solve the energy emergency at all.
Also dissatisfied with Angelo Bonelli, national co-spokesman of Europa Verde, according to whom the cut for the SADs will be 0.58% out of a total of 18 billion that the state disburses every year in favor of hydrocarbons. “Cingolani’s recipe to reduce the increase in the cost of the electricity bill – continues the ecologist, – is to kill renewables: it eliminates system charges by using the proceeds of Ets CO2 auctions for 1.2 billion euros which, by law, they are used to finance sustainable mobility, renewables and forestry projects; at the same time, it taxes the producers of renewable energy and not the oil industry which, with the increase in the price of gas, has made billionaire extra profits ”.
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