Trade unions call for windfall tax on renewable energy profits

The Independent trade unions federation (Poaso) has called on the government to implement a windfall tax on profits from renewable energy sources.

They say that the proceeds from the tax should go towards the reinstatement of the electricity subsidy.

They say that operators of renewable energy sources have seen “unexpected surplus profits” after the regulatory authority decided that the compensation handed to independent energy consumers would be linked to the most expensive of the Electricity authority’s (EAC) operational machines.

“This, combined with the fact that in a small, isolated electricity system like Cyprus, which does not have cheap energy from nuclear or hydroelectric sources or interconnections, condemns consumers to buy 30 per cent of the energy they buy at the highest possible production price”, they said.

They added that “based on the current policy, no matter how much renewable energy production increases, there will be no reduction in the price of electricity and consumers will continue to pay a consistently high price based on oil prices”.

“The only winners from this policy are renewable energy producers, who will see their profits increase with the price of oil and be at 600 per cent of their costs, and even tax free”, they said.

They added that one of President Nikos Christodoulides’s key goals during his election campaign was affordable energy for consumers, and pointed to Greece as an example to follow, saying that unexpected profits there are taxed at a rate of 90 per cent.