Energy companies are looking for formulas to take advantage of Moncloa's step back with the tax in court

On Tuesday, October 24, PSOE and Sumar presented a Government pact that electricity companies, oil companies and financial entities combed in search of a very specific point, that of the tax on banking and energy income. The political agreement pointed to a sine die extension of the tax, a decision that angered the major leaders of the Ibex 35 and was the first step towards the legal entanglement that the Government is now facing, after less than two months later, the cocktail of Political and business pressures have pushed Moncloa to redesign the rate.

At the time, when the rate was still considered temporary, all the major energy sector companies appealed the tax in court.. The result was a wave of processes in the National Court that, today, are in the processing phase. Legal sources close to these companies assure EL MUNDO that the Executive's reversal would mean recognizing that something in the design of the tax was not done well at the time, that is, it would give arguments to the companies in their legal crusade, an asset that already The legal teams in the sector are exploring.

Both the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, have avoided in their latest statements on the subject specifying whether or not the Council of Ministers will maintain the tax, at least until it has the report from Executive technicians.

Ribera admitted that, as designed, the sales tax “may not meet the requirements to be permanent”. Ribera confirmed the scenario anticipated by Sánchez, who proposed his “redesign” the day before.

The truth is that the trigger that has led the Government to rethink the rate for the sector has been the threat from giants such as Repsol, Endesa, Iberdrola or Banco Santander, to divert their investment efforts towards less hostile markets.. And the Government is very aware that its green commitment to Brussels, the National Energy Plan (Pniec) designed by the department headed by Ribera, estimates the investment that will have to be mobilized to meet the 2030 objectives at almost 300,000 million. of which 85%, 255,000 million, will come from the private sector.

Moncloa's change of tone has followed several movements. The most important, the speech, two days after the PSOE-Sumar pact was disseminated, by the CEO of Repsol, Josu Jon Imaz, who assured that, in the worst case scenario, he could take the group's new investments to Portugal. Shortly after, Petronor, the oil company's Basque subsidiary, carried out the threat by leaving several projects in the air.

No less forceful were the statements, a week later, by the president of Banco Santander, Ana Botín: “You have to pay taxes, but if you pay too many, people will leave”. His words anticipated the sentiment of the financial sector, key to financing the billions of renewable investments projected in Spain.

Days later, Cepsa became the first energy company to go into losses after the impact of the tax. Close sources assure that the oil company has also put pressure on the Government, above all, thanks to its leadership role in the Andalusian Valley of Green Hydrogen, a billion-dollar project that will form part of the backbone of the national renewable ecosystem.. The turning point in the fight between the sector and the Government was the visit, on December 1, of the president of CriteriaCaixa, Isidro Fainé, to La Moncloa. The Catalan businessman, leading the first shareholder of Naturgy, addressed the tax issue in his face to face with Sánchez. Less than a week later, Ribera opened up to review the design of the controversial tax.