(Finance) – The standard contained in the Of Ukraine which introduces a “extraordinary solidarity contribution“on the so-called extra profits presents strong technical criticalities in the application to the oil sector that require intervention to mitigate the distorting effects. It is the position expressed by Unem – Unione Energie per la Mobilità, the association representing the main companies operating in Italy in the processing, logistics and distribution of petroleum products, low carbon energy products, including biofuels and e-fuels – during a hearing in the Senate.
According to the association, in fact, the rule as it was structured, affects the downstream oil regardless of the generation not only of extra profits, but also of profits. What is not convincing the sector is the failure sterilization of the effect deriving from the natural increase in amount sold compared to the base period considered, that is the pandemic emergency which was characterized by strong blocks to the mobility and the consequent collapse of the consumption of petroleum products: the period taken as reference in the calculation goes from 1 October 2020 to 31 March 2021. The result – we read in the statement presented at the hearing by the president of Unem, Claudio Spinaci, is “an artificial theoretical extra profit, amplified by almost 5 times from the presence of excise duty for companies that release petroleum products for consumption “.
“The oil downstream (refining, logistics and distribution) has already been in severe economic and financial suffering for some years. pandemic have been significant and never recovered, companies are saturating credit lines due to the high costs of supplying and, being an energy-intensive sector, they suffer from energy costs – explained the president Spinaci -. It is understood that the emergency period requires exceptional efforts, but the indicators identified are not able to correctly define, in the case of our sector, the presence of profits and, therefore, of extra-profits, leading to the determination of extraordinary contributions. “of an extent not commensurate with reality capacity contributory of the sector “.
“As I also said in a recent parliamentary hearing – recalled Spinaci -, this ‘volume effect’ is significantly amplified for us by the presence of excise duties which constitute the VAT base for active transactions, while they are not included in passive transactions. thus a high balance is generated between assets and liabilities that has nothing to do with presumed extra-profits “. For these reasons, the president of Unem believes “it is essential to intervene to neutralize this effect. If this were not the case, a further negative blow would be given to a sector already in great difficulty, with serious repercussions on the employment plan and of energy security of the country “.
Unem has presented some amendments to the Dl Ukraine. Among these are the neutralization of the excise duty effect, not including the excise duties paid in the tax base, and the introduction, on the basis of the constitutional principle of contributing to public expenses based on the ability to pay, of a Postal Code on the extraordinary contribution linked to the most recent results for the year. “We could hypothesize a ceiling calculated as a percentage of the result of the last financial year. This is obviously a proposal to be explored. The important thing is to define a system for calculating the contribution that is truly representative of the profitability of companies and not just a method of making cash regardless “, concluded Spinaci.