The one but last Spanish retro active FIT cut: electricity (AND FIT!) tax
On the 28th December 2012, two laws were published in the BOE (Boletin Oficial del Estado) which brought disaster to the renewable energy sector: law 15/2012 and law 17/2012. Law 15/2012, dated the 27th of December, concerned fiscal measures to raise funds for the electricity sector, amongst them the so-called 7% “electricity tax” which disproportionally damages the renewables sector. Law 17/2012, also dated the 27thof December, concerned General State Budgets (Presupuestos Generales del Estado, PGE) for 2013, which incorporates a provision that corresponds to the transfer of remuneration in Special Provisions for PGE. Follow this link for more information on 17/2012, paying particular attention to pages 145 and 146.
In the Spanish version of this blog, you can see many articles detailing our standpoint on the above laws. To give you a quick overview this is what we discussed, along with links to the articles on the Spanish blog:
-The impracticality of bringing Special Regime’s retribution to the PGE
-The breach of Community law on State aid
-The discrimination that is implied by the “electric tax”
We will adapt these articles for our English speakers' blog asap.
The Spanish government has ignored all internal and external pressure and has gone ahead with its ideological plan to finish with renewable in favour of a reactionary revival in energy terms, just as they had planned from their think tank Faes (more tank than think) – and on top of that, with tax-payers money. (See article here)
The government seems to be running a reality show that is more like fiction, headed by RD1565/2010 and followed by RDL14/2010, and the worst may yet still be to come. Let us hope that Brussels and Luxembourg respond to these atrocities being committed within energy politics in Spain.
We are doing all we can to ensure that community rights are adhered to in Spain, but this is a difficult task in a country that blames the complexity of its own administrative system for not fulfilling EU norms.
Our strategy follows two lines of attack, the conventional way and the unconventional, both of which will be initiated immediately; we will not wait for November 2014.
To be conventional we will do as is required of us – as we always have done - and wait to carry out the final provisions (those of November 2014) correctly and after its presentation, file a written request for improper payments.
To be unconventional, we will strike whilst the iron is hot and not lose time. In the interests of our clients, we will apply a scheme in order to provoke an administrative act, linked to their own associated arrangements with the EU law, which we will then impugn.
We submitted this first attack on the 1st February 2013, at the same time as we handed in 2/2013, with the aim of having an administrative act we could appeal before November 2013. If we manage to apply this strategy successfully, we will buy ourselves at least one year in time. We will furthermore appeal against the regulation which the government will have to approve in order to implement the new models for the declarations required by Ley15/2012.
All our clients who have contracted our Representation & Legal & Fiscal services have this strategy included in their package. If you have any questions about this service, please do not hesitate in sending us an email by clicking here. Those of you who are clients already have an important discount: we will reimburse you everything you have paid so far in order to ease your transition from initial and incidental services (only RD1565/2010 and RDL14/2010) to our new service Representation & Legal & Fiscal (http://holtropblog.com/es/index.php/representacion-legal-tributario/informacion-sobre-el-servicio/261-presentacion-nuevo-servicio-representacion-legal-tributario )
To defend yourself against these and past attrocities committed by the Government, click on this (spanish) link.
As you can imagine, we have been extremely busy here, we will be updating our English language blog with the most relevant new between now and next week! Especially the LAST RETROACTIVE FIT CUT, the freezing of the inflation correction for FIT in Spain will be commented. You can advance reading on that on our Spanish blog.