Ukraine, war pushes costs into bills: increases of 164% for businesses

Bills, the alarm: “The Italian system must reduce dependence on foreign supplies”

There war pushes the energy bill of businesses business And tourism up to + 164% in one year. This is underlined by the Confcommercio which, in collaboration with Nomisma Energyestimated the effects of the conflict in Ukraine on companies in the tertiary market.

The outbreak of war in Ukraine the Last February 24 triggered a strong upward instability in energy prices, already underway for months, with increases of about 50% in the prices of the gas andelectricity on international markets. Consequently, the impact on the energy bill of families and businesses becomes increasingly heavy and difficult to sustain.

In particular, for the tertiary companies in the trade, hospitality and catering sectors, an aggravation of the conflict, with the possible interruption of the supply of gas from Russia, it could involve a energy expenditure almost 30 billion euros in 2022with an increase of over 160% compared to 2021.

On the fuel front, the price of oil grinds new records and pushes diesel over 1.8 euros per liter and with the ongoing conflict for road transport there is a risk of increased annual expenditure of 21 billion. Structural measures are therefore increasingly urgent to solve the problems in our energy system, starting with the reduction of dependence on foreign supplies, the revision of energy taxation and the reduction of general system costs.

The events of these days, underlines the Confcommercio, they demonstrate the mistake of not having diversified our energy sources and suppliers over the past decades. In Italy, gas production has been reduced from 17 billion cubic meters per year in 2000 to approximately 3 billion cubic meters in 2020 against a national consumption that has remained constant between approximately 70 and 90 billion cubic meters. .

We must proceed promptly on the front of diversification, to overcome the vulnerability of our country as soon as possible and avoid the risk of future crises. Beyond the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the need for interventions capable of adequately balancing the impact of increases in the bill and structurally resolving the nodes affecting our energy system remains confirmed.

The measures recently adopted by the Government go to the right direction, but they are still not enough. A broader and more structural action plan is needed to contain the excessive dependence of the country’s energy supply onand foreign suppliesreduce the burden of general system costs – which have an estimated cost of almost 17 billion for 2022 which falls on households and businesses.

And take action for the reorganization of energy taxation: from reduction from 22% to 10% of VAT on the electricity consumption of companies in the tertiary market, thus bringing it into line with that currently envisaged for the other production sectors and for households, the exclusion of general system charges from the application of value added tax and the reduction of excise duties.

On the front of the expensive fuels, the first emergency interventions introduced in support of road transport by the recent “bill decree” are well. However, it is necessary to structurally act on the tax burden of the sector and in the future some changes must be introduced to the European proposals of the “FIT for 55” package, to prevent the costs of the transition from becoming unsustainable for Italian companies.

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