The PNV opposes extending the current energy tax because it is "damaged goods" and Ribera is open to lowering it

There are movements around the controversial tax on the energy sector that could be decaffeinated by the end of the year. The leader of the PNV, Andoni Ortuzar, declared this Sunday in El Correo that he opposes the Spanish government maintaining it with its current design in 2024 because it is "damaged merchandise". "The PNV is going to get involved so that the things that are done are reasonable for all parties," he said when asked about Repsol's rejection of this tax and its warning about taking investments from the Basque Country and the rest of Spain to other countries if the government extends it after it expires at the end of this year. "What is clear is that as it stands, this tax is damaged merchandise," said Ortuzar, who has decisive votes for legislative measures to extend it.

For her part, the third vice-president of the Government, Teresa Ribera, seems to abide by the European Commission's report published this Friday by EL MUNDO, on the fact that the situation of the profits of oil and gas companies is no longer the one that motivated the EU to allow special taxes on extraordinary profits. In statements to Colpisa, Ribera says that they are going to think about how to maintain the tax: "We use a reasonable energy tax because the situation is different"

The pressure from the sector is intense, led in this case by the president of Repsol, Antonio Brufau: "If we have taxes that Portugal or France do not have, our decision will be to go there," he said last Thursday. Ribera regrets that these complaints are not aired in public, but seems willing to address them. In the investiture agreement reached by the PSOE and Sumar, both agreed in October: "We will review the levies on banks and energy companies with the aim of readapting and maintaining them once their current period of application expires, so that both sectors continue to contribute to tax justice and the maintenance of the welfare state."

In Portugal there is no such tax and in France it is much lower, according to the latest report by the European Commission.