2023-10-23 19:57:47
The third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Riberais a supporter of extender a 2024 “many” of the ‘anti-inflation’ measures designed by the Government to contain the rise in prices of energy that decline on December 31, as revealed in an interview in the newspaper Expansión. Among them, the vice president cites the VAT reduction on electricity and gasthe extension of discounts on electricity and gas bills (bono social) and the cap on electricity income what limits to 67 euros per megawatt-hour their new term supply contracts. He is also in favor of extending the validity of the Iberian mechanism (gas cap), although the latter depends on Europe deciding. extend the crisis time frame.
Sources of Ministry for the Ecological Transition They clarify that the decision on the tax issue is the responsibility of the Treasurybut they add that the third vice president is in favor of maintain reduced VAT for electricity (total exemption is not possible according to European regulations) long-term to favor the electrification of the economy, while in the case of gas is favorable to a temporary discount due to the current situation. Currently, the electricity and gas bill has a 5% VAT (compared to 21% of its usual rate), while the special tax on the electricity (at 0.5%, instead of 5.11%) and the 7% tax on Electrical production is on hold.
Since mid-2021, the Government has been implementing different temporary measures to help families and companies, in the midst of the upward spiral of energy prices. The majority will decline on December 31, but the members of the Executive have so far clung to their position of interim (as it is an ‘acting’ Government) to avoid revealing its intentions in the event of an investiture favorable to the current coalition Government. The third vice president reveals, however, that if the PSOE manages to form a Government, she will propose extend the aforementioned measures “in one of the first Councils of Ministers” to be held.
In the Budget Plan sent to Brussels last week, the Executive estimates about 3,545 million euros the fiscal impact of an extension of the energy measures during 2024. Specifically, it quantified the reduction of the VAT on electricityby 397 million the reduction of gas, wood and pellets, by 1,032 million the excise tax on electricity and at 1,100 million euros the tax on value of electrical energy production. If the food tax reduction is included (1,350 million euros) the impact amounts to 4,895 million euros.
The First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calvino, has been much more ambiguous in an interview on Spanish Television. Calviño has insisted that the decision on the measures “will be taken by the next Government”, as she has expressed hope that by the end of the year the new Executive will have been formed. “Of course, with regard to President Sánchez and the economic policy of our government, we will continue to take the best measures at all times to be able to continue promoting economic growth and job creation,” he added.
European framework
In line with this interest at the national level, Teresa Ribera is also in favor of extend the European aid framework, that arose with the Ukraine crisis and that also declines at the end of this year. “My impression given the circumstances is that it is good to maintain those emergency measures just in case; If they are not necessary, they will not have to be applied, but if they are necessary, it is good that they remain in force,” he said last week. “At a time like this, with uncertainties like the ones we continue to experience with the invasion of ukraine by Russia and with a middle East that is experiencing a terrible situation, from a human point of view in the first place, but also surely with regional, geopolitical consequences, which end up affecting the entire international community, it is good to maintain the alerts from an energy point of view,” he added.
The Spanish position is thus aligned with the axis Franco-German who also defends extending this aid framework, compared to Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia and Finland who have asked the competition commissioner, Didier Reynders, not doing it, according to the Financial Times. The European Comission Until now, it has remained in favor of not extending measures in general, but rather focusing on vulnerable groups. The community Executive will present “in the coming weeks” its valuation on the effect of the measures adopted at European level in the context of emergency and their proposal about what to do after the end of the year, although the final decision will depend on the twenty-seven countries of the European Union and will be decided in the last Energy Council of the year, which will be celebrated next December 19 in Brusselsthe last under the Spanish presidency.
This crisis framework is necessary scenario so that the Government can extend the so-called ‘gas cap’, which limited the cost of this raw material for power plants, and which despite not operating since Half of February, supposes a safeguard in case prices skyrocket. Although the price of gas is well below the 200 euros per MWh that it once exceeded worst of the crisis, stands at 50 euros per MWh, more than double the 20 euros per MWh that it used to mark until two years ago. Before its last extension, approved at the end of March, Ribera had already asked to extend this measure throughout 2024, but it was the European Commission that limited it until the end of the year according to the current crisis time frame.
First measures
The measures cited by Ribera agree that they were some of the first measures implemented by the Executive. Most of them between June and October 2021, even before the start of the Ukrainian war. It is the case of the tax reduction of the electricity bill. It was in June 2021 when it decided to lower the bill for the first time, with VAT that went from 21% to 10% and the suspension of 7% on production. A few months later, in Septemberthe reduction of the Special Tax for Electricity (from 5.1% to 0.5%) and after the start of the war in Ukraine, in June 2022, reduced VAT to 5%.
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Between September and October 2021, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition launched the cut due to the extraordinary income that electricity companies receive from their nuclear and hydraulic generation, which for practical purposes represents the obligation for these companies to limit its new long-term supply contracts to 67 euros per megawatt-houras well as the expansion of the discounts on the electricity bill for the vulnerable familiesknown as electric social bonus (from 25% to 65% and from 40% to 80%).
A year later, in September 2022, the VAT reduction on gas would be extended to 5% and a month later, specific aid would be created on electricity bills for the middle classes (40% discount). ) and gas aid was expanded by subsidizing part of the regulated tariff (TUR) and creating a new regulated tariff for central heating (TUR Vecinal). In addition to the reduction in energy and food, discounts on food also decline at the end of this year. collective transport urban and interurban, of at least 50%; the suspension of the evictions from vulnerable families; the ban on dismissal in companies that have received public aid; and direct aid to carriers.
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