Faced with soaring energy prices, the responses are not the same in Europe. While France has chosen the tariff shield as its main strategy, notably with a discount of up to 18 cents per liter, neighboring countries are considering other solutions. Direction Germany and Italy who want to tax the profits of gas and oil distributors.
Germany wants to tax tanker profits after tax cut fiasco
Our neighbor across the Rhine has taken an initiative as original as it is contested. Since June 1, the government has waived the charge of 30 centimes per liter of fuel. A measure of 3 billion euros for taxpayers, applicable in June, July and August. According to the figures, the repercussion of the hoped-for discount on motorists has not taken place. Since June 1, the price of fuel at the pump has not stopped climbing and finds itself, for diesel as for gasoline, around 2 euros per liter, that is to say at standard levels of before this measurement.
Faced with the dissatisfaction of motorists who have the clear feeling of being cheated, a party and a lobby find themselves in the dock. There is first of all the liberal party FDP which haggled over this measure in exchange for the 9 euro ticket in transport wanted by the Greens. This party is still suspected of being in the pay of lobbies and big companies within the government. The lobby is obviously that of oil, accused of winning by scratching and drawing since not only are the profits of the companies less taxed but in addition they are cashing in on this new rise in prices at the pump. The hydrocarbon majors put forward inflation and rising supply costs as an explanation
The measure turns into a fiasco. This “tankrabatt”, as it is called in Germany, this discount at the pump is stamped by the Spiegel as “the most absurd decision taken in a long time”. Unfair because it does not reach those it targets the poorest to benefit above all people with high incomes and consuming large quantities of fuel. Anti-ecological because sending the wrong signal, it does not encourage people to consume less petrol and diesel. Exactly the opposite measure should have been adopted, for example, believes the IFO, a liberal research institute close to big business.
Faced with the unpopularity of this measure, the Minister of Economy and Climate Robert Habeck is preparing a text which could allow the profits made by refineries to be overtaxed. The ecologist in charge of the economy wants to present, in the coming weeks, a text to toughen the antitrust law in order to tackle the undue profits of large companies. In the future, there will no longer be any need to prove the existence of an agreement between Esso, BP, Total and company to siphon off their profits, or even to dismantle their German subsidiaries. The threat is paying off since prices at the pump have begun to fall again, miraculously, since this announcement.
In Italy, a tax on superprofits with contested benefits
Mario Draghi’s government is also facing a significant rise in gas and oil prices. The President of the Italian Council is counting heavily on a tax on the superprofits of energy companies to curb a rise in prices which is of growing concern to Italians.
Among our transalpine neighbours, prices at the pump have soared, as have those of electricity. Paying for a liter of gasoline for less than 2 euros is mission impossible. In some service stations in the center of Rome, it is not uncommon to now pay 2.50 euros for a liter if you are served. Levels reached at the start of the crisis before the government reduced taxes to contain the increase in prices. But this breath of fresh air did not last long, with oil prices continuing to rise. However, the country is barely recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic which has hit it hard, and the rise in the European Central Bank’s key rates once again raises the threat of a rise in Italian rates, accentuating the economic difficulties. from the country. Hence the plan to get the money where the government thinks it is, that is to say in the pockets of companies in the energy sector.
A famous extraordinary tax on superprofits which was introduced by a decree-law of March 2022. A rate of 25% was set on pre-tax profits made between October 1, 2021 and April 30 compared to the same period in 2021. This concerns companies in the sectors of extraction, production, import and sale of energy, gas and petroleum products. Nothing is final since the decree is still being examined by the chambers and it is the subject of no less than 2,400 amendments. If all goes well, the government hopes to get 11 billion euros from it, but this estimate is disputed by the companies themselves. Their profits may not be as great as oil and gas prices suggest. Moreover, the energy regulatory authority, Arera, has gone through all the contracts of the companies concerned. His observation is that the revenues that will be collected if this tax is actually adopted, could be less than expected. In any case, this authority encourages the executive to allow the customers of these companies, primarily individuals, to benefit from the fruits of this tax.