Is it necessary to recover the energy tax? Spain is promoting, along with other countries, the creation of a new levy at the community level applied to the extraordinary profits of companies in the sector.
Congress, so far, has not spoken out and the PSOE wants political groups to 'get involved' in this regard. To this end, it has registered a non-law proposal in the Chamber for its discussion and vote in the Plenary Session.
The socialists recall that this initiative was already supported by the first vice president and Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, along with his counterparts from Germany, Italy, Austria, and Portugal, through a letter sent to the European Commission to demand the creation of this tax on a community scale.
Now, the PSOE resumes that request and transfers it to Congress through a non-binding proposal whose purpose is to alleviate the impact on consumers and taxpayers. The party emphasizes that the proposal "aims for the costs for Europe of the recent crisis caused by the illegal war of the United States and Israel against Iran not to fall exclusively on consumers and the public treasury".
The Socialist Group adds that it considers it "fair and reasonable" that, to the extent that large companies in the energy sector are registering extraordinary profits due to the intense rise in fossil fuel prices, they should also contribute "in an extraordinary way to alleviate their effects".
Likewise, the PSOE insists that the approach is not novel and recalls that, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European Union approved a temporary solidarity contribution, a mechanism that the Government of Spain also applied. "The current situation presents important parallels with that of 2022, which justifies the adoption of an exceptional fiscal tool similar to that of then," argues the PSOE.
The proposition warns, in any case, that the new tax must be designed with an adequate calculation of the tax base, so that its application does not translate into an increase in final prices and ends up impacting citizens instead of truly taxing the extraordinary profits of these large energy companies.