The Director General of Taxes of the Government of Aragon, Francisco Pozuelo, estimated that the Government of Aragon could end up collecting Nearly 12 million euros for environmental taxes newly created for wind farms -8.5 million raised- and photovoltaic parks -3 million-. A figure which deviates from the 20 million initially estimated – 12 million for wind farms 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 good rate of collection of other taxes such as those on wealth, inheritances or real estate transfers, “essentially due to the good progress of real estate activity, which creates enough of a slowdown to more than compensate for the loss of collection that we may have due to this difference”, he assured.
The gap was attributed to the lack of information when large figures are establishedto the late entry into force 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 drafted with the expectation that the clock would start ticking in February.“but at least the collection of March, April and May was lost out of a collection of 11 months and the tax could not be demanded for the whole calendar year because of the risk of retroactivity defect.”
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.
Loss of income
For the PSOE, Óscar Galeano regretted that “with so many regulatory changes, income is lost along the way” and recalled that the government had established that these environmental taxes “will compensate” for what would be lost due to reductions in other taxes, as AIREF pointed out, which “will no longer be possible”.
From VOX, Fermín 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 installations, “nor to promote the modernization and updating of the installations.” “We neither collect nor discourage”he summed up.
For Aragon-Teruel Exist, María 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 great opportunity because, in the end, who pays more pollutes more“.
From CHA, José 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.”
Álvaro Sanz (IU) also thanked him for the transparency and asked him about future projections given the concern that the reduction in income represents for his training, especially in the face of projects like those of the Maestrazgo, “which “it is not registered correctly” and more “after meetings between the vice president and the Treasury adviser himself with certain representatives of the renewable energy industry before the drafting of the law.”
