The Government of Pedro Sánchez announced this Thursday the VAT reduction for gas consumers, so that it varies from 21% to 5%. This measure could generate positive expectations among those who consume large amounts of gas, such as the ceramics industry in Castellón, which in a year and a half it has gone from paying 20 euros per megawatt/hour to reaching 300.
In the case of companies like Azuliber, which are dedicated to the production of spray-dried clay for the tile sector, announced this week that they could not stand the regulatory uncertainty surrounding cogeneration plants. This situation has occurred since the gas cap for electricity was approved, so the remuneration received by these plants was much lower than gas prices, which exceeded 300 euros, which gave rise to companies making losses . The consequence was the cessation of its activity and an ERTE for 117 employees.
This situation has been warning for months. The ceramic employers association (Ascer), mayors of municipalities that concentrate this industry, the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig; and the president of Pamesa, Fernando Roig, sent letters to the Ministry of Ecological Transition –responsible for energy policy– to demand a quick and effective solution a is the problem. Without getting any response.
Sanchez’s announcement “it will have little impact at the business level since VAT is a tax that is compensated”explained the general secretary of the ceramic employers association (Ascer).
The reason is that manufacturers they have to pay more and more money for gas VAT, but then this money is returned, since this concept is assumed by the consumer of the final product. Which means you don’t have no effect on the income statement of some companies that are already applying temporary employment regulation files (ERTE) due to the losses generated by their energy costs. The sector continues to have the same problems to guarantee its future in the face of such an adverse scenario, and is still waiting for the administrations to take relief measures.
Ascer recalled that the VAT reduction for natural gas “is something that we had included in our battery of proposals and that a similar framework had already been applied in the case of electricity”, but that it was not part of the hard core of demands, which included the elimination of the tax on hydrocarbons, the reduction of gas tolls or an intervention temporary energy prices Gasoline have had a discount of 20 cents for months, but noor have similar actions been applied to gas.
For her part, the mayor of Castellón, Amparo Marco, presented this Friday in Italy the concern that this sector liveswhose production is concentrated in the province of Castellón, in the face of an energy crisis characterized by the continuous rise in gas and electricity prices.
During the meeting, held within the framework of the general assembly of the European Ceramics Route, together with the president of the Italian tile employers’ association (Confindustria Ceramina), Giovanni Savorani; and the president of the Ceramics Forum of the European Parliament, Elisabetta Gualmini; the problems that this sector is going through were shared both in Italy and in Spain due to rising coststake advantage of synergies and make a common front in Brussels. The mayor indicated that she will soon hold a meeting with representatives of the ceramic sector of Castellón to address the current complicated crossroads.