Montero cools off Yolanda Díaz’s proposal and advances that the surcharge on electricity companies will be applied in 2023 | Economy

The objective is the same, but the form and the times do not coincide. The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, has once again been cautious this Tuesday about the application of a new tax surcharge to large electricity companies, cooling the proposal launched on Monday by the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, to raise it by 10 points, in the extension of the anti-crisis decree, corporate tax for these companies. “Taxation is an issue that cannot always be regulated through decree laws, nor through Budget projects. Therefore, depending on the final path we choose, we may or may not use that vehicle”, Montero pointed out this morning in an interview on TVE. “The important thing is that it be as fast as possible and that it can be applied at the beginning of a fiscal year, which I think is the most orderly.”

In this way, the head of the Treasury slips that the new extraordinary tax on electricity companies that is being negotiated within the Government is processed in parallel with the 2023 Budgets and comes into force next year, a solution that he had defended weeks ago. And that it had caused a clash with United We Can, which intends to include the measure in the extension of the April anti-crisis decree, which was approved in April to limit the impact of the war in Ukraine and which will cease to have effect on June 30.

Montero has also expressed doubts about the tool to be used to guarantee a greater contribution from the large electricity companies to the public coffers, which are obtaining extraordinary benefits due to the increase in energy prices. “Now we work from the Ministry of Finance so that the return of the tax figure that is applied is a real return, and I think that those who are experts in this matter understand me perfectly, because sometimes the corporate tax vehicle is not the that provides the best performance”, he pointed out during the interview, just two days after the historic victory of the PP in the Andalusian regional elections.

“So we are working within the Government to do it in a way that really allows an effective contribution. I think that what is more important is what we want in the form, that this is already a technical issue”, he explained. “What do the technicians have to say in what way we can do it better and viable, that it may be in this package that we are going to know more or less imminently or will we have to wait for the Budgets? I would say that each norm has to carry exactly the measures that correspond to what it wants to regulate”.

discrepancies

The scuffle between coalition partners over how and when to approve a surcharge on power companies has intensified as the end date of the anti-crisis plan approaches. Last week, Yolanda Díaz insisted that it is necessary to raise the tax rate on large electricity companies to mitigate the impact of the price increase ―the rise has been greater than 8% in May―, and recalled that the Constitution does not allow the creation of new taxes through the Budget Law. Montero responded by assuring that there is no controversy between the coalition partners on account of this measure, and that “the most appropriate formula and also the vehicle that enables its implementation” is being studied.

On Monday, the second vice president redoubled her pressure. In a Twitter thread, Díaz proposed incorporating a series of measures in the extension of the anti-crisis decree, which had already been proposed in April and were not included, including a tightening of the taxation of electricity companies through a rise of 10 points at the corporate tax rate. In addition, she reactivated the proposal to create a check for 300 euros aimed at the people most affected by the price increase.

“We agree on the content and the objective. That is to say, we believe that at this time it is fair that the electricity companies pay a greater part because they have had greater benefits due to this increase in energy costs”, Montero stressed on Tuesday. “So we are working intensively at the Ministry of Finance to pursue the goal.”