Walter Finch
SPANISH energy company Endesa has announced a remarkable 76% surge in net profit for the first quarter of the year, defying the effects of Spain’s windfall tax.
The company, owned by the renowned Italian energy titan Enel, revealed that it had trousered a staggering €594 million from January to March.
Endesa did face the burden of a windfall tax imposed on Spain’s major energy firms benefiting from soaring gas prices.
This amounted to €208 million for the quarter.
But it was offset by the steady decline in gas prices in recent months after the shock of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent them skyrocketing.
Endesa has challenged the temporary 1.2% levy on utilities’ sales in the High Court, labelling it to be both ‘discriminatory and unjustified.’
In February, Spanish oil major Repsol lodged an appeal before the National Court against the temporary levy, which is being used to pay for government anti-inflation programmes.
Since then, the inflation rate in Spain has dipped from a high of 6% to 3.3% in March, before bouncing back to 4.1% in April.
Finance Minister, Maria Jesus Montero said at the time: “Banks and energy firms have produced unprecedented profits with energy companies reporting rises of up to 43%, with some of those only declaring results that go up to last September.”
“This tax is quite a manageable amount given the volume of profits and is not a confiscatory tax, but somewhat proportionate to these profits,“ she added.
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