The Italian energy giant Enel estimated on Monday that Italy's recently announced measure to tax the extraordinary profits of energy companies could have a “negligible” impact on the group.
The amount would be about 10 million dollars, “almost zero, negligible,” Enel CEO Francesco Starace told Bloomberg TV.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced on Friday that the new 10 percent tax on energy producers' “extraordinary profits” will be redistributed to “businesses and families in great economic distress”.
The group explained that term contracts guarantee fixed prices for two years, so the company is protected from price fluctuations, and “therefore we do not record additional benefits due to market volatility”, he said.
On the other hand, the Italian hydrocarbons group Eni considered it “premature” to calculate a precise amount, although a spokesman acknowledged to AFP that it could reach “hundreds of millions of euros”.
The money raised from this new tax will help finance a €4.4 billion ($4.8 billion) package of measures aimed at alleviating the rise in energy prices for households and businesses.
A prior tax of 10% will be levied on “additional” earnings obtained between October 2021 and March 2022, compared to gains earned in the same period of the previous year.
Enel recorded a net profit in 2021 of 3.19 billion euros (3.516 million dollars), while the Italian hydrocarbons group Eni earned 5.82 billion euros.
The OECD Secretary General was in favour of a provisional increase in taxes on energy companies with the aim of financing measures to relieve consumers, hit hard by the rising prices, which has been accentuated by the war in Ukraine.
“Gas price volatility in Europe is totally out of control,” lamented Starace, who favors a mechanism to “control and regulate prices for at least twelve months.”
Enel, which is 23.5 percent owned by the Italian State and operates three thermal power plants and two wind farms in Russia, does not rule out “stopping investments”, “reducing its exposure” or “leaving” that country, Starace said.
Eni, which is 30.3% controlled by the Italian State, announced in early March, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, that it will sell its 50% stake in the Blue Stream gas pipeline, which it owns in equal shares with the Russian giant Gazprom.
bh/kv/mb
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