Background information

As a respond to the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine and the large increases in the prices of the energy, the Greek government announced on 5 May 2022 a new National Support Programme, aimed at supporting the weakest households. In this context, the imposition of an extraordinary levy/contribution by the electricity producers was also announced.

According to the Minister of Energy, Mr. Κ. Skrekas, this is a “pioneering” mechanism, which ensures that the exaggerated corporate earnings of the electricity companies created by the “price adjustment clause”, are bound to the benefit of the citizens. These earnings are transferred to the Energy Transition Fund and will be used to finance the measures to support the citizens. The measure was included in the article 37 of the law No. 4936 on 27 May 2022 and were specified on 5 September 2022 by the jMD No. 87027/2890 (Government Gazette B 4658).

Content of measure

This measure imposes an extraordinary contribution of 90% of the additional revenues of electricity companies.

The imposition of this special levy is one-off measure, concerns the period from 1 October 2021 to 30 June 2022 and will be calculated on the basis of the increase in the gross profits of electricity producers as compared to the corresponding months of the previous year. The electricity producers are liable for the payment of the levy for all their production units. The country's Energy Regulatory Authority (RAE), determines the amount of the contribution for each liable producer and the revenues from the contribution are attributed to the special account "Energy Transition Fund" in order to finance the subsidy of the electricity bills of the consumers.

According to the estimations of RAE, the profits are calculated at more than €900 million. At the same time, the state-owned power company (DEH/PPC) has already returned about €336 million to subsidy the consumers.

Use of measure

No information are available.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Sector specific set of companies	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Company / Companies	Companies

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	No involvement	No involvement
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• No involvement
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

There is no involvement of social partners.

Views and reactions

There are no social partner reactions to the measure.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 06 May 2022: How the market saw the new energy package (Pos ide i agora ta nea metra) (m.naftemporiki.gr)
• 10 May 2022: “Solidarity levy” and not taxation on the excess profits of energy companies (www.efsyn.gr)
• 27 May 2022: Law 4936 of 27 May 2022 (www.elinyae.gr)
• 25 July 2022: Statement by the Minister of Environment and Energy, Kostas Skrekas, on the measures to support society from the effects of the international energy crisis in August (ypen.gov.gr)
• 05 September 2022: JMD 87027/2890 on 5 September 2022 (www.taxheaven.gr)