economy and politics

Congress overturns the legal basis of the temporary energy tax with the support of PP, PNV and Junts

Congress overturns the legal basis of the temporary energy tax with the support of PP, PNV and Junts

The Government will approve the decree extending the tax on Monday before the repeal comes into force

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The Plenary Session of the Congress of Deputies approved this Thursday by an absolute majority the repeal of the legal article on which the temporary tax on energy companies that has been extended since 2023 is based.

This is an amendment to the tax reform that the PP introduced in the Senate with its absolute majority and that has now been ratified in Congress with the support of Junts and the PNV, who no longer want to extend the tax.

Specifically, the measure establishes the repeal of the article that regulates the rate in the law by which the temporary taxes on energy and credit entities and financial and credit establishments were created and by which the temporary solidarity tax of the great fortunes.

Both the PNV spokesperson, Aitor Esteban, and the Junts spokesperson, Miriam Nogueras, have confirmed in the halls of Congress that their parties do not support this tax figure because it can put investments in the energy industry at risk and, in the case of the Basques, because their current configuration of non-tax benefits prevents the provincial treasuries from collecting it.

The repeal would prevent it from fulfilling its commitment to ERC, Bildu and BNG to extend the tax, but the Government plans to take advantage of the Council of Ministers next Monday, the last of the year, to approve the promised decree law so that it comes into force sooner. that the reform voted on this Thursday is published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and the suppression of its legal basis comes into force.

THE SCENARIO WAS ALREADY PRESCRIBED

In the negotiations of the Ministry of Finance with ERC, Bildu and BNG, the scenario was already foreseen in which PNV and Junts could ally with PP and Vox to repeal the energy tax and thus try to make its extension difficult, according to the independentistas.

“It was something we had in mind, we knew it could happen,” commented EH Bildu’s economic spokesperson, Oskar Matute. In this context, the Government agreed with the three parties to approve the extension decree in the last Council of Ministers of the year, which will be on Monday, so that it comes into force before the repeal.

For her part, the first vice president and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, has asserted that this decree will be approved to comply with the agreement with its partners. “We will bring it, we will approve it,” he said in the halls of Congress.

WILL IT BE CONVALIDATED?

Like any decree law, the extension of the tax on energy companies will have to be submitted to the Plenary Session of Congress within a period of 30 days for its validation and repeal, and that is where the Government is not guaranteed its support given the refusal of PNV and Junts .

For this reason, the Treasury plans to offer that the decree be processed later as a bill to transform the tax into a permanent tax and thus convince Podemos, which rejects the temporary nature, and the PNV, which does not oppose the tax because its management would correspond to the Basque and Navarrese provincial estates.

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