Italy to hit energy firms with 10% levy to fund support plan

Bloomberg

Italy will impose a windfall profit tax of 10% on some energy companies to finance a 4.4 billion-euro ($4.9 billion) package of measures to protect consumers and businesses from soaring prices.
The levy will be calculated on the increase in profit that energy companies reported between October 2021 and March 2022, compared with the same period the previous year. Companies that report an increase of 5 million euros or more will face the 10% levy, according to a draft of the decree seen by Bloomberg News.
The income from the tax will allow the government to finance new measures announced without further
expanding the country’s budget deficit.
“The larger part of the new measures won’t be financed by the state budget, but by energy companies,” Prime Minister Mario Draghi said at during a press conference to present the plan.
Italy imports about 40% of its total gas consumption from Russia, and like many other European countries it’s been struggling with surging energy costs after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a new jump in gas prices. Rome has already set aside more than 16 billion euros to soften the impact of the climb in energy prices over the past year.
“We are taxing a part of the extraordinary profits that producers have been made thanks to the higher cost of raw material, and we are redistributing these funds to companies and families which are struggling,” Draghi said.