The audit shows that in many areas there is a big difference between what on the one hand, households and small companies pay, and what large companies in the manufacturing industry pay in terms of tax rates and cost per emission.
These data are rarely reported in the debate, partly because they are not public in annual reports or elsewhere. SVT has therefore, through available data, interviews and own calculations, tried to show as good a picture as possible.
An underlying factor in the choice of subject is that in the January agreement there are pledges of 15 billion in so-called "green tax exchange". This means that one wants to make large tax increases on environmental taxes with a total of SEK 15 billion, but at the same time to reduce the tax by the corresponding amount elsewhere. This means that there will be various proposals for increased environmental taxes in the coming years. SVT thinks it is relevant to highlight who today pays more and less in environmental taxes, for example when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions.
The companies themselves have been helpful to varying degrees. Many have not wanted to report what environmental taxes they pay. In annual reports and sustainability reports, this is often not stated, but only some information on how large the electricity and energy use is at the group level. But the companies sometimes did not want to answer SVT's questions about how much of this consumption comes from operations in Sweden.
SVT has therefore included information in the EU register of notified state aid. There, the Member States' tax authorities report on tax relief, subsidies and other things that are classified as state aid and therefore require EU approval. However, these registers do not show exact amounts, but only amounts of amounts, which is why the figures for individual companies become somewhat coarser estimates.
We have also been looking for other information to try to supplement the picture.
Several of the exceptions SVT reports on are about national rules and tax rebates. The electricity tax is one of these, and Sweden has reduced the tax for the manufacturing industry to the EU's minimum level of 0.5 öre / kWh.
Some exceptions are instead a consequence of the EU's energy directives, including discounts on energy taxes for metallurgical energy. There, you completely avoid energy taxes on both electricity and fossil fuels, but this applies to a very limited part of the companies, and only parts of their operations.