The Director General of Taxes of the Government of Aragon, Francisco Pozuelo, considered that the Government of Aragon can ended up collecting nearly 12 million euros for the newly created environmental taxes for wind farms -8.5 million collected– and photovoltaic parks -3 million–. A figure which deviates from the 20 million initially estimated –12 million for wind power and 8 for photovoltaic parks–.
This forecast, which Pozuelo “would have set within a month”, indicates a “significant drop”, as acknowledged by the general director, who does not believe that this will lead to “worrying consequences, much less dramatic ones” due to the compensation with the correct rate of recovery of other taxes such as those of Assets, Successions or Transfers of Assets, “essentially due to the smooth running of the real estate activity, which creates enough of a slowdown to more than compensate for the loss of income that we may have because of this difference,” he assured.
He attributed the discrepancy to a lack of information when setting the high figures, the late implementation of taxes and regulatory changes.
“The censuses have been refined and we now have better information on the dimensions of the poles, rotors, surfaces, in the case of photovoltaic parks. And we have been able to include or eliminate parks, so the collection would vary,” he says.
Regarding the entry into force, Pozuelo explained that the law was drawn up hoping that the clock could start in February, “but at least the collection of March, April and May was lost on a collection of 11 months and the tax” could not be required for the entire calendar year due to the risk of retroactivity.
The director general appeared before the Finance, Budget, Interior and Public Administration Committee following Minister Bermúdez de Castro, responding to the requests of the PSOE, CHA and IU to report precisely on the performance of these new tax figures that are added to others such as that of IMAR, which reaches 64.5 million euros, that of hydroelectric uses, close to 17 million or the tax on high-voltage lines, “for which 2 million have been collected and which with the regulatory changes can grow up to 50%”, Pozuelo detailed. For next year, yes, the director general estimated that the total revenue expected from the two new environmental taxes – solar and wind – could reach 22 million euros.
The demotivating goal in question
For him PSOEOscar Galeano regretted that “with so many regulatory changes, revenues are lost along the way” and recalled that the government had established that these environmental taxes would “compensate” for what would be lost due to reductions in other taxes, as and as AIREF pointed out, which “will no longer be possible.”
From VOXFermín Civiac criticized the fact that the law was not approved “as agreed with VOX” because “behind our backs, a reduction in photovoltaic energy was agreed with the PSOE” in a context of “oversupply” of renewable energy. Civiac regretted that in addition to collecting less than expected, this law also fails to “discourage the blind proliferation” of this type of installation, “nor to promote the modernization and updating of installations.” “We neither collect nor discourage,” he summarized.
By Aragon-Teruel existsMaría Pilar Buj lamented that “for this trip, these bags were not necessary.” The parliamentarian recalled that in her group “we did not consider this as an environmental tax because a large part must be dissuasive” and, with this law “we have lost a huge opportunity because, in the end, the one who pays the most pollutes the most.”
From CHAJosé Luis Soro thanked the speaker for his clarifications and put into perspective the importance of collecting less because for his group “the aim of an environmental tax must be to encourage the sustainable development of renewable energies.”
Alvaro Sanz (User interface) also thanked him for his transparency and asked him about future projections given the concern that the reduction in income represents for his party, especially in the face of projects such as those of the Maestrazgo, “which are not properly registered” and even more so “after the meetings between the vice president and the Treasury adviser himself with some representatives of the renewable energy sector before the drafting of the law.”
