Electricity producers react against tax on windfall profit

Electricity producers have reacted against an extraordinary 90 percent retroactive tax on windfall profits from October, 2021 to June, 2022, opposing the logic behind the measure, not its resulting sums. Some producers claim the initiative amounts to confiscation and appear to be preparing for legal action.

Dinos Benroubi, president of ESAI, the Hellenic Association of Independent Power Producers, told the recent Renewable & Storage Forum, an event staged by energypress, the measure punishes anybody who makes money without taking into account how this money is made. He described the government measure as “confiscation”.

Electricity producers contend they have not been taken by surprise as the sums to be paid had, more or less, been anticipated and budgeted.

Even so, some company representatives told energypress they will react to the plan, while others seem to be preparing legal challenges.

The retroactive tax is expected to raise 373.55 million euros, of which a sum estimated between 260 and 270 million euros concerns power utility PPC, the dominant market player. The majority of the remaining 100 or so million euros, or 70 to 80 million euros, concerns the country’s four independent power producers, while renewable energy producers will be responsible for the rest.