The PP manages to get Congress to demand that the Government lower the VAT on electricity thanks to the absence of Junts and the abstention of the BNG

The Congressional Ecological Transition Commission approved this Monday an initiative of the PP, supported by Vox, to demand that the Government reduce the VAT on electricity, gas and biomass to 5%, all in a vote in which Juntes was not present and the BNG has chosen to abstain.

In reality, the vote has been tied at 17 votes in favor, from PP and Vox, and 17 against, from PSOE, Sumar, ERC and EH Bildu, since the BNG, which represents the entire Mixed Group, has decided to abstain. But since in the event of a tie, the weighted vote of the entire chamber is applied, the result was 170 votes in favor and 159 against.

The PP justifies this initiative because the VAT on electricity has gone from 10% to 21% after last February the wholesale prices of the electricity market chained an entire month of low prices.

Something that, in the opinion of the PP spokesperson in the Ecological Transition Commission, Juan Diego Requena, has to do with the price volatility of this market. “The price yesterday was 1 euro per megawatt/hour in the wholesale market, today it is 14 euros and tomorrow it will be more than 42 euros,” he explained.

The situation worsens, says Requena, if we take into account that more and more households cannot have their homes at an adequate temperature, given the energy poverty caused by the “absolute failure” of the Government’s policies.

For all these reasons, Congress urges the coalition government to apply a VAT of 5% to the gas, electricity and biomass bill, without also making a reference to the wholesale market.

At the time of setting positions, the BNG has justified its abstention because it is in favor of maintaining some reduced taxes for the moment, while the two Government partners, PSOE and Sumar, have positioned themselves against the initiative and have reminded the spokesperson for the PP that was the Government of Mariano Rajoy the one that raised the general VAT to 21%.

On Sumar’s part, Eloi Badia He has called Requena’s defense a “milonga” because the PP voted against the last anti-crisis decree of January, which left the VAT on electricity at 10%. He has also dedicated a few minutes of his speech to the “looting” of hundreds of billions of euros in the form of profits that the large energy companies have made at the expense of citizens.

Regarding the PSOE, Mara de las Nieves Ramrez He has spoken along the same lines as Badia, and has stressed that former President Rajoy raised taxes “up to 50 times” and also imposed a “tax on the sun.”

Even Vox, which has decided to support the initiative, has reproached the PP, through the mouth of the deputy Patricia Ruedawhich was the Rajoy administration and more specifically the Ministry of Finance of Christopher Montoro the one who undertook the VAT increase.

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