Mitsotakis says energy companies’ excess profits will be taxed

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday that most of the windfall profits of energy companies will be taxed and help cover losses incurred by citizens during the energy crisis.

Speaking in parliament, the prime minister said that energy companies would be forced to pay back part of their excess profits to counteract this disruption in energy prices.

Οι πολεμικοί καιροί απαιτούν αλληλεγγύη και μοίρασμα των βαρών. ? Όπου Διαπιστωθούν υπερκέρδη, οι εταιρείες θα κληθούν να κληθούν να συνεισφέρουν στην αντιμετώπιση των απωλειών των πολιτών. pic.twitter.com/SrSgJXNB17

—Prime Minister GR (@PrimeministerGR) March 23, 2022

“If excessive profits are found, companies will be called upon to contribute to redress the losses suffered by citizens,” Mitsotakis said.

He emphasized that he would not hesitate to introduce an emergency tax law where such profits exist. However, he noted that it cannot be taxed before it is created.

The Prime Minister stressed that 90% of the excess profits of energy companies will be subject to emergency taxation and returned to the state budget.

The Energy Regulatory Authority (RAE) will analyze the data of all energy companies from October 2021 to today, and where excess profits are found, the companies will compensate the losses of citizens, the Prime Minister emphasized in his Twitter post, indicating 90% of taxes.

This week it became known that other EU countries may adopt a similar law.

At the European Commission’s summit starting today, a proposal for a temporary taxation of “soaring profits” will be adopted. According to the International Energy Agency, current market conditions could lead to excessive profits of up to 200 billion euros per EU from electricity generation using natural gas, coal, nuclear power, hydroelectric power and other renewable sources in 2022.

For Greece, this decision paves the way for an emergency tax on hydroelectric power plants and lignite, whose operating costs are much lower than the wholesale market price. expensive natural gasas well as for the production of natural gas in certain periods, when the variable cost of the relevant units deviates significantly from the wholesale price of electricity.

Super profits from RES create a surplus of ELAPE, which is already being used to finance subsidies. Quantitative data on the profitability of each production unit per hour and per day ΔΕΗ sends daily to the Ministry of the Environment and Energy, and to the Prime Minister’s Office from March 1.

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