After years of challenging the payment of the EESC (extraordinary contribution on the energy sector) in court and having accumulated hundreds of millions of euros in litigation, energy companies have an asset in the war against the tax introduced by the Passos government Coelho as a temporary measure, but one that has lasted forever with the socialists in power. This legal trick was given by the Constitutional Court and can be played by energy companies that do not operate in the electricity sector, but that pay CESE like Galp and the gas distributor that was sold to international investors.
And all because of a well-intentioned change in energy policy that the first government of António Costa adopted after an agreement with EDP to reduce the electricity tariff debt, whereby all the income collected in CESE went to the electricity system. This 2018 decision paved the way for the resumption of the payment of contributions by the electricity company (which had suspended its liquidation).
CESE’s annual income, of around 120 million euros, allowed the reduction of electricity prices in 2019 and has contributed every year to the reduction of tariff debt. But, contrary to the commitment assumed at the time with EDP, the amount collected has not decreased and the rate itself (which is levied on the assets) has been renewed every year. In 2022 and 2023, it is applied cumulatively with the European windfall tax applied only to Galp in Portugal.
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Source: Observadora
