In light of the evident opposition from PNV and Junts to maintaining the ‘impuestazo’ on energy companies and banks, the First Vice President and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, admitted this Thursday that if the Government does not have ‘sufficient’ support in Congress, it will not be able to continue with these extraordinary taxes approved during the pandemic. Therefore, the ministry is working on reformulating the tax: it wants companies to be able to reduce part of the payment with the corporate tax to avoid double taxation.
However, business associations warn of an impact of €66 billion (€16 billion in reduced investment for energy companies and €50 billion in reduced credit for financial entities), while the president of Santander, Ana Botín, asserts that this tax ‘goes against economic growth.’ The president of the CEOE business association, Antonio Garamendi, warned that the stubbornness to make them permanent leaves billions of euros in future investments ‘in limbo’. ‘If we want companies to invest and be competitive, we need to make money,’ he said, warning of the damage to the industry ‘if taxes are imposed selectively.’
From the chemical industry employers’ association Feique, its general director Juan Antonio Labat pointed out that the poor design of the tax has forced companies in losses to pay it because it is applied to revenues and not to results, in direct reference to Cepsa, which bore a charge of €244 million despite recording €233 million in the red. The collective rebellion comes after Repsol took action, moving the development of a green hydrogen project to Portugal after warning at the time that it would relocate investments if the tax became indefinite. The move by the multi-energy company has indeed torpedoed Moncloa’s intentions to perpetuate both taxes by getting Junts per Catalunya to oppose any initiative that threatens Repsol’s investments in its Catalan plant in Tarragona.
