Fiona Govan
SPAIN has unveiled a package to bring down soaring electricity bills that include capping gas prices, cutting taxes to the consumer and redirecting energy company profits.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez outlined the measures on Monday as he admitted that it was unacceptable to see energy companies profit from elevated market prices.
“We are going to take away those extraordinary profits that the energy companies are making…and we are going to pass them on to consumers,” he said in an interview with state broadcaster TVE.
He also said a special electricity tax would be slashed from the current 5.1% to 0.5%.
Without filling in details on the measures he said redirected profits from the utilities would be used to cap gas prices and bring down energy costs for consumers.
Households across Spain have seen their electricity bills rocket to record prices this year, with the cost reaching an all-time high of €154.16 per megawatt-hour on Monday, according to market operator OMIE.
Sanchez’s left-wing coalition government will introduce a raft of measures that will see government revenues in 2021 plummet by around €1.4 billion.
“The common good comes above the profit-and-loss accounts of big business,” tweeted Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz during the TVE interview.
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