The tax on extra-profits causes discussion less than a month before the elections. The Aid decree applied a 25 per cent tax rate to energy companies on the extra profits obtained thanks to the increase in gas and oil prices. To date, however, the money collected are well below those expected. Of the 4.2 billion euros expected with the first installment (which expired on 30 June), the State collected just under 1 billion. The deadline to comply with the deposit has been brought forward to August 31, paying a limited penalty. But most of the companies have decided not to pay and to appeal. By the end of the year, the collection of about another six billion was expected.
The flop of the taxation of extra-profits represents a big unknown also because the electoral campaign sees the main parties all supporting this measure to plug the energy crisis and even there is that it goes so far as to ask that taxation is on 10% of extra profits. Also in recent days the general secretary of the CGIL, Maurizio Landiniproposed to also extend to sectors such as banks and pharmaceuticals. “A new intervention is immediately needed for families and businesses, to be financed by redistributing all the extra profits, not only those of energy companies, but for example also those of banks and pharmaceuticals, never so high for 10-12 years”.
The leader of the M5S, Giuseppe Conte, said he was in favor of extending taxation to the pharmaceutical and insurance sectors.
Changes to the tax are instead invoked by the right. The economic expert of FdI, Maurizio Leo, points out how the tax is parameterized on VAT “but it is necessary to change the tax base, hit the real extra profit, and therefore refer it to the white, to identify only the profit relating to energy. At that point we can discuss a rate of over 25%, for example, bring it to 50% “. For an increase of up to 100% of the 50 billion extra profits of the energy companies, they are Europa Verde and the Italian Left.
The energy companies present in Italy in the first 5 months of this year have seen an increase in revenues, compared to the same period of 2021, by 60 percent, according to what the CGIA reports in relation to the industrial activities of extraction of energy raw materials (such as oil, natural gas, etc.) and the refining industry. With reference to the January-May period, the growth in turnover of companies in the energy sector in 2019 was +0.5 percent compared to the same period of the previous year; subsequently, in the midst of the pandemic, revenues fell by 34.6 percent (January-May 2020 over the same period of the previous year); otherwise, in the first 5 months of 2021 the change was +19.6 per cent. Finally, this year, turnover has undergone an impressive surge which, as we said, was + 60%.