Chemical company PFI exempted from consumption tax on natural gas

The Phosphoric Fertilizers Industry (PFI), Greece’s largest chemical company, will be exempted from a special consumption tax (EFK) imposed on natural gas consumed for production.

The exemption, a long-standing demand by PFI, which has been included in a mini tax reform bill, will also apply for the country’s refineries, industrial enterprises, as well as smaller-scale operations that rely entirely on natural gas in production.

PFI, based in Kavala, northern Greece, produces ammonium nitrate, a process for which the chemical company consumes considearable amounts of natural gas, representing 90 percent of the final product’s total cost.

The special consumption tax imposed on PFI’s natural gas bills increases the chemical company’s operating cost by about eight to nine million euros per year.

Kavala MP Nikos Panagiotopoulos, a member of the main opposition conservative New Democracy party, had requested that PFI be exempted from the tax during a parliamentary session in March.