Expensive energy is affecting all Italian companies without distinction but the small ones “well before the boom increases recorded in recent months, suffer a ” disfavor ” treatment compared to large production companies”. The imbalance is recalled by the CGIA which underlines how, according to the latest Eurostat data relating to the first half of 2021, SMEs pay 75.6% for electricity and 133.5% more for gas than large companies.
A differential that also affects realities of the same size present in the rest of Europe, although in other countries this gap is smaller than ours. And now, Cgia still notes, “we work at night”: a choice, according to the Report that many SMEs have decided to introduce or upgrade “to reduce energy costs”. But, between absences related to Covid and the need to reshape the production cycle to cut the cost of bills, “there are not a few activities that have reduced staff and great difficulties in guaranteeing efficient production processes”, still denounce the artisans of Mestre. To increase the historical differential between small and large companies, for electricity especially the entry into force, from 1 January 2018, of the energy-intensive reform which provides for a subsidized cost for large industries, eliminating the voice of the latter ” Charges and Taxes ”, and redistributing it to all other categories of companies excluded from the concessions. For gas, on the other hand, the CGIA points out, the tariff gap is attributable to the fact that all large companies receive customized offers from suppliers with a price set tailored to their needs.
«A further demonstration that our country is not suitable for small businesses. Although the latter constitute over 99% of the companies present in Italy, employ more than 60% of the private sector employees and are the characterizing component of Made in Italy in the world, they continue to be unjustifiably discriminated against “, comments Cgia which in any case notes how following the measures implemented by the Draghi government in the second half of 2021, at least the energy gap has “narrowed slightly.” Even in comparison with Europe, Italian SMEs are the ones that pay the most in terms of energy costs . Among all the countries of the euro area, in fact, the note still reads, only compared to Germany do our companies pay less (by 12.6%). Compared to the European average, however, our small entrepreneurs pay on average the 15% more. Comparing the situation in terms of the cost of gas, on the other hand, among the countries of the euro area, Italian SMEs are in third place (after Finland and Portugal) for the highest tariff. If the average applied in our country for each MWh (VAT excluded) consumed is equal to 53.7 euros, we record a price variation compared to the average of the countries that use the single currency of +7.6 percent, still note the artisans of Mestre. But also the fiscal component contributes “in a decisive way” to raising the cost of tariffs. Also in the first half of 2021, Cgia notes again, for the electricity bill, for example, with reference to small businesses, 40.7% of the total cost is attributable to taxes and charges: the average of the Euro Area, on the other hand, is 35.7%. For that of gas, on the other hand, if in Italy the percentage incidence of taxation on the total cost borne by small companies is 27% , in the euro area is around 25%.