Iberdrola and Endesa warn the Government they do not have the extra benefits that the new tax will withhold

The Ministry of Finance, the department responsible for developing the technical design of the new tax in recent weeks, has not yet announced the conditions of the new tax, the tax rate to be applied and the tax base to be applied. used to calculate these extra benefits or how much it will affect each company. Despite all these unknowns, major energy companies deny that they have the extraordinary benefits that the Executive plans to cut.

Taking advantage of the presentation of its semi-annual results this Wednesday, the country’s two largest electricity companies, Iberdrola and Endesa, warned the Government that the big companies will not find the extra benefits they claim to be seeking taxes. taking advantage of the energy crisis and the spiral of price increases. In fact, both companies are directly taking advantage of the drop in profits they have recorded in the Spanish market so far this year.

Iberdrola records the best period in its history with a net profit of 2,075m euros By June with a strong 36% increase. However, the group assures that the very strong growth in earnings is due to the withdrawal of international trade in the US, Brazil and the UK, and warns of a slowdown in its operations in Spain. The electricity company underlines that its net profit in Spain fell 26% between January and June due to “high energy prices that were not passed on to customers through previously agreed fixed price contracts”.

For its part, Endesa posted a net profit of 916 million to June, 10.1% more due to the extraordinary impact of its partial sale to Enel, the main partner of its electric mobility business. The electricity company highlights that, excluding this operation, ordinary net profit fell 11.8% year-on-year to 734 million in June, reflecting the weak evolution of the business in Spain. Endesa states that it sells more energy than it produces and therefore has to buy energy from the market, so if electricity is expensive, it hits hard.

Show opponents

The companies that are increasing their profits in Europe are the gas and oil companies, not the integrated electricity companies. Iberdrola President Ignacio Sánchez Galánat a conference with analysts who implicitly select competitors such as Naturgy or Repsol “We do not have extraordinary advantages. Gas and oil companies are not in the same situation,” he said as the winners of the crisis.

Electricity companies have insisted on denying the existence of millionaire aid, which the Government says it wants to cut, since in recent months they have been selling all their electricity generation at prices much lower than the prices set in advance and by the electricity market. , therefore, therefore, they are not taking advantage of the increases. Iberdrola assures that it has sold 100% of production by this year, reaching 80% by 2023, 60% by 2024 and 40% by 2025.

“We are waiting to learn the details for evaluation, but I would like to reiterate that we have not achieved extraordinary benefits at this point by complying with legislation approved in recent months,” J. said.Osé Bogas, CEO of Endesa, in a meeting with analysts to present the semi-annual accounts. The government has already implemented a number of measures over the past year to contain the rise in electricity prices, including the control of prices set in contracts signed by companies. increase in prices.

State control

The government requires power companies to demonstrate irrefutably that they are not taking advantage of high market prices to sell electricity produced by nuclear, hydraulic and renewable energies, including the rise in the cost of natural gas, if they cannot afford it. For months, the manager has been forcing them to disclose data from thousands of contracts on the prices at which they sell their production, and if they are signed above a set maximum price (67 Euros per megawatt hour, MWh), they have to refund the difference. .

In the case of large electricity companies, a more thorough check is to monitor the contracts between the subsidiaries of the same company and examine the price they charge to the end customer if they hide these extraordinary benefits in the last link of the value chain. Such a measure is not currently applied to gas and oil companies.

Big electricity companies like Iberdrola or Endesa have strategic plans for the coming years, which envision improvements in their profits each year; This is attributed to the multimillion-dollar investment effort of electricity companies to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy and improve energy sources. networks and despite the deterioration of electricity trading activity in the Spanish market. Iberdrola confirms its goal of achieving a record profit of between 4,000 and 4,200 million at the end of the year and Endesa maintains its usual net profit forecast of 1,800 million.

Increase 7,000 million

As President Pedro Sánchez confirmed in the Debate on the State of the Nation, the government’s plan is to introduce a new tax to tax the extraordinary profits that electricity, gas and oil companies make through price increases, according to the Executive. In the midst of the energy crisis and financial institutions waiting for the increase in interest rates prepared by the European Central Bank (ECB).

The government’s forecasts predict that it will be possible to collect in about two years with the new tax planned to be introduced in 2023. 4,000 million euros for large energy companies (those who bill more than 1,000 million a year) and others 3,000 million from financial institutions. Voices of political opposition to business, criticizing the executive’s new taxes, warn that the imposition of this tax increase will be paid for by customers, as companies and banks will pass it on to themselves at whatever price they want. or the commissions they charge themselves.

The government says it wants to avoid it. The Treasury had predicted in the past weeks that the explicit ban on the transfer of this effect to the final consumer by the companies and banks that pay the new tax will be included in the next law text. Future regulation will also task the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) with monitoring the behavior of large energy companies—electricity, oil and gas companies—and large banks, as well as giving the agency enforcement powers. penalties for firms that do not comply with the law and pass the cost of the tax to the customer.