SYRIZA-PS: The final conclusion of the Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) on the excessive profits of electricity producers should be submitted to Parliament.

The deposit of the final conclusion of the Energy Regulatory Authority (RAE) on excess profits in the wholesale electricity market and the taxation ask them 49 SYRIZA-PS deputies, on the initiative of the Minister of Environment and Energy and Member of Parliament for Thessaloniki, Socrates Fammellou.

In a request for the submission of documents to the Ministry of Environment and Energy it is noted that the South-West government, through legislation to remove all kinds of losses and discounts on supplies, has managed to to reduce the initial amount of the excess profits of the vertically integrated generators, circumventing the basic principle that supply and production are treated as separate activities.

As a result, according to the announcements of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, the final amount of excess profits to be taxed for the nine-month period October 2021-June 2022 is even lower than what was originally calculated by RAE for the six-month period October 2021-March 2022.

In order to have full transparency on the excess profits of power generators until June 2022, of EUR 2,2 billion which, as shown by choice of the Mitsotakis government, will remain mostly in the coffers of energy companies, SYRIZA-PS calls for the immediate submission of the report to Parliament.

The full text of the Request for the Deposit of Documents

«Athens, 11 November 2022

Request for the submission of documents to the Minister of Environment and Energy

Subject: Submission to Parliament of the final conclusion of the Energy Regulatory Authority on excess profits in the wholesale electricity market

On 23 March, Mr Mitsotakis, after pressure from SYRIZA-PS, was forced to admit the existence of excess profits in the wholesale electricity market and announce their retroactive taxation, following their calculation by the Energy Regulatory Authority with 90%. The conclusion of the Energy Regulatory Authority presented to the Parliament's Institutions and Transparency Committee on 12 May estimated these excess profits for the period October 2021 - March 2022 at €927 million, with the lion's share going to the «public» Electricity Company (€730 million), which is now openly profiting at the expense of consumers. The quarter July 2021-September 2021 has been deducted from the estimate, although already since then a disproportionate increase in the profit margin in electricity generation has started to be observed.

It has since taken almost eight (8) months to complete, even with provisional data, the new conclusion for the period October 2021-June 2022 (i.e. for a period of 9 months) of the Energy Regulatory Authority and the Ministry of Environment and Energy to announce, on 03.11.2022, that the taxation of excess profits is proceeding, in order to return them, in accordance with Mr Mitsotakis' commitments, back to consumers as a subsidy, through the Energy Transition Fund.

Only, on the way to the final calculation, the government of Mr Mitsotakis managed to reduce the excess profits to such an extent that the taxable amount for the period October 2021-June 2022 was lower than that calculated by the Regulatory Authority for the period October 2021-March 2022, i.e. 415 million euros against 927 million euros (!).

Specifically, in order to give the vertically integrated power generators a soft landing, the government legislated, through article 37 of Law no. 4936/2022 to deduct all kinds of discounts and losses from the supply (retail market), knowing of course that this is contrary to the legislation which clearly states that production and supply are separate activities that must be treated separately at the accounting level, just as if they were carried out by different companies (Article 141, Law 4001/2011), and ignoring the position of the Energy Regulatory Authority on this issue.

According to reports, the initial estimate of the Energy Regulatory Authority for the period October 2021-June 2022 amounts to €1.22 billion, from which, after deducting all discounts - even retail consistency discounts - and losses from bilateral contracts, the final amount of €415 million was arrived at, and the final expected collection of €373.55 million announced by the Ministry of Environment and Energy. It should be noted that SYRIZA-PS, on the basis of official data from ADMIE and RAE for the period July 2021-March 2022, estimates the excess profits for the period July 2021-June 2022 at EUR 2.2 billion.

Because for a year and a half consumers have been paying for the extreme electricity prices and the excess profits that have accumulated in the coffers of the energy cartel

Because the Ministry of Environment and Energy and the Energy Regulatory Authority should have at least published the final conclusion of the assessment of excess profits in order to provide clarity and transparency on both the allocation of excess profits and the «discounts» for their calculation made through Law 4936/2022.

We request that the final conclusion of the Energy Regulatory Authority, with all the detailed calculations, the «discounts» and the allocation of excess profits per power generator, be submitted to the Parliament for the information of MPs and citizens.

The applicant Members of Parliament

Famellos Socrates
Avramakis Eleftherios
Alexiadis Tryfon
Anagnostopoulou Athanasia (Sia)
Alexandros Avlonitis
Vagena Anna
Vardakis Socrates
Vetta Calliope
Yannoulis Christos
Gara Anastasia (Natasha)
Gkiolas Ioannis
Dritsas Theodoros
Eleftheriadou Sultana (Tania)
Konstantinos Zouraris
Thrapsaniotis Emmanouil
Dionysis Kalamatianos
Kasimatis Irini (Nina )
Katsis Marios
Kafantari Haroula (Hara)
Kokalis Vasileios
Lappas Spyridon
Malama Sunday
Mamoulakis Charalambos (Haris)
Constantine Markou
Alexandros Meikopoulos
Balafas Ioannis
Barkas Konstantinos
Bournous Ioannis
Notopoulou Ekaterini (Katerina)
Xenogiannakopoulou Elise (Mariliza)
Papadopoulos Athanasios (Sakis)
Papanatsiou Aikaterini
Perka Theopisti (Petite)
Poulou Panagiou (Giota)
Ragousis Ioannis
Santorini Nektarios
Sarakiotis Ioannis
Panagiotis Skourletis (Panos)
Skoufa Elisha (Betty)
Syrmalenios Nikolaos
Tzoufi Meropi
Tolkass Angelos
Triantafyllidis Alexandros
Tsakalotos Euclid
Filis Nikolaos
Fotiou Theano
Dimitrios Charitou
Hatzigiannakis Miltiadis (Miltos)
George Psychogios»