Greece is set to tax the surplus profits of electricity suppliers after an amendment which temporarily establishes the reimbursement of part of the electricity suppliers' excess profits was approved in Parliament on Wednesday.
The Environment & Energy Ministry's bill was approved in plenary by the votes of ruling New Democracy alone, and it was rejected by main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, the Communist Party of Greece, and MeRA25 while PASOK-KINAL and Greek Solution voted 'present' during the proceedings.
Environment & Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas said "we envisage the extension of this mechanism for taxing surplus profits in the supply sector too," adding that Greece has created a mechanism for taxing surplus profits in the production sector, which has so far yielded about 2.5 billion euros, which have been returned to electricity bills.
For the first time after the abolition of the adjustment clause, he added, "we have obliged suppliers to declare electricity prices for the following month on the 20th of every month."
Due to considerable changes in the prices of wholesale electricity, Skrekas warned, owing to changing natural gas prices, "there is a possibility of excess revenues, excess profits, will be created in the supply sector as well.
"We calculate a fair retail price, based on the actual wholesale price, and we calculate what the price charged by suppliers is," he continued, "and if there is a difference between the fair price and the price charged, namely the positive difference, we recover it as a percentage - initially at 60% this year - leaving a remaining 40%, which will be offset by possible differences in the next quarters."
