Energy minister: We’ll try to eliminate the 2 pct turnover tax for coal-based energy companies

Anca Alexe 18/01/2019 | 08:25

Energy minister Anton Anton said on Thursday after meeting with representatives of the Oltenia Energy Complex that authorities were considering the idea of eliminating the 2 percent turnover tax for companies who produce energy using coal.

He added that the tax cut is justified considering that these companies must also pay carbon dioxide certificates, which are very expensive, accounting for over 30 percent of the coal-based energy production costs.

“One of the biggest problems is the need for CO2 certificaters, almost 40 percent of the turnover. We’ve talked about this as well – it’s a situation we had not expected. I have presented the situation to the European commissioner for Energy. The certificates have reached prices we can’t sustain. We’re going to come up with a scheme at the Ministry to allow CE Oltenia and other similar companies to have less of a burden due to these certificates. They were invented to encourage decarbonisation, and CE Oltenia’s future plans include new technologies and these technologies will slowly help it cut emissions. That’s what it’s about, but it requires a lot of money,” the minister said.

After yesterday’s talks, miners at CE Oltenia agreed to stop their strike just as Romania was approaching an energy crisis as power plants’ coal supplies were running out.

Miners agreed to an increase of RON 585 net per month in their salaries as well as the distribution of holiday vouchers worth RON 1,450. Other categories of workers in the company will also see salary increases, but at lower levels.