He is trying to provoke a debate in the Parliament SYRIZA, with the head of the party’s KO, Socrates Famello to submit a request before the daily debate “for the extreme accuracy, the excess profits of the oligopolies and the refusal of the government to proceed with measures for the benefit of the Greek society and economy”as he mentions.
In detail, the request:
Athens, April 23, 2024
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE GREEK PARLIAMENT
Subject: Request to hold a pre-agenda debate in the Parliament (Article 143 of the Civil Code)
Glomex Player(eexbs1jkdkewvzn, v-d0rglu82w32h)
Dear Mr. President,
The continued precision in a range of basic goods, such as energy and food, brings despair to households, which almost every week are faced with new increases on supermarket shelves and gas stations, but also sectors of the economy such as agricultural production and secondary sector. In addition, recently, important production units of the country have been shutting down, as a result of the energy crisis in particular.
Over the last 3 years, our country has often achieved negative firsts in the cost of energy (electricity and fuel), something that has been repeated and confirmed recently at the country’s gas stations. Within March, before the recent crisis in the Middle East, Greece was recorded as the second most expensive country in the Eurozone for petrol, while even without the highest taxes the price of unleaded was higher than the European average.
So far the government announcements are proving to be only communication fireworks since our country from October 2023 indulges in a championship in food inflation, and the same situation continues in March: second with 5.4% after the island of Malta, while at the level of the Eurozone the increases within a year were just 1.7%.
At the same time, general inflation is rising (3.4% in March compared to 3.1% in February) in the opposite direction to what generally happens in the eurozone, where inflation is decreasing. The same is true for structural inflation (excluding food and energy), where inflation accelerated to 3.4% in March compared to 3% in February, while in the eurozone it is easing.
The above comparisons belie both the effectiveness of controls carried out by state agencies and the narrative of imported accuracy that the government resorts to to hide its responsibilities.
While households and businesses are suffocating from the revaluations, some oligopolies enjoy, by government choice, unprecedented immunity to the surplus profits that accumulated in 2022 and 2023. It is noted that according to the Report of the Governor of the Bank of Greece (2023), the business profits for the 2023 “remain impressively higher than the -pre-pandemic- three-year average of 2017-2019 (28.1%).
2022 was a record year in earnings for listed companies that saw a 303.6% jump in profits and a 15-year record in dividend payouts, with 80% of dividends going to just 7 companies. At the top of the profitability list for 2022 were the country’s two major energy groups, Motor Oil and HELLENiQ Energy (formerly ELPE). A similar picture, albeit of relatively reduced profitability, is also observed for 2023, as illustrated by the refining margin, which for HELLENiQ Energy amounts to $17.40/barrel, twice the average of the four-year period 2018-21 (8.75 $/barrel).
In application of the European Regulation 2022/1854, the government compulsorily proceeded with the institution of extraordinary taxation of surplus profits from the refining activity (Law 5007/2022, article 114) which, in addition to being the smallest possible – and combined with other tax reliefs – was limited to 2022 only, ignoring that the European Regulation allows for application for 2023 as well!
The admission of the Deputy Minister of Finance in the Parliament (28.02.2024), that the government does not intend to tax the surplus profits of the refineries for 2023 with the excuse that only “in 2022 it was the increased price of gasoline that created this problem”, revealed that the government’s choice is to pile up the surplus profits in the coffers and dividends of the two refineries, burdening all other economic-production functions and consumers in our country.
Unnecessary delays and obstruction are also observed with regard to the taxation of surplus profits from the supply of (retail) electricity, which arose in the period August 2022-December 2023, when with the alleged abolition of the readjustment clause, an exorbitant cost was transferred to consumers. Only for the months of September and October 2022, it is estimated that there were excess profits of the order of 1 billion euros, which were also subsidized by the state budget!
Following the opposition pressure of SYRIZA-PS, the then Minister of Environment and Energy was obliged to legislate the taxation of surplus profits in November 2022 (Law 4994/2022, article 40), however the Ministerial Decision on the calculation of surplus profits was issued one year late and to date, from what has been known, the state has not collected a single euro from the surplus profits of the electricity supply.
While consumers (households and businesses) are experiencing unprecedented accuracy, excess profits remain a challenge for coffers and shareholders of energy companies.
Excess profits are also accumulating in other sectors, especially banks, whose excess profits are not taxed, while households and businesses have little access to credit, pay significant fees, and the level of banking services, especially in the periphery, is constantly declining.
The issue of accuracy is the biggest problem that citizens have to face in their daily lives, as well as businesses. Against this, the policy of the government, not only does not bring results, but protects the super profits of the oligopolies.
Regarding the above issues, on behalf of SYRIZA-PS, we have twice submitted a question to Mr. Prime Minister (March 15 & April 4) without, however, introducing the issue for discussion despite the passage of six (6) weeks (!), proving that the government and the Prime Minister are unable to give adequate answers and try to avoid the discussion because they have clear responsibilities for the extreme accuracy.
Based on the above data, we request that a debate be held immediately before the order of the day in the Parliament (Article 143 of the Civil Code) with the object of dealing with the accuracy and taxation of excess profits that are accumulated by oligopolies to the detriment of the Greek economy and society.
Yours sincerely,
The President of the SYRIZA Parliamentary Group PS
Socrates Famous
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