Bulgaria’s gas tax has sparked tension in a period of intense volatility in energy prices.
More specifically, Bulgaria has imposed an extraordinary tax of 10 euros/MWh on Russian gas transported through its territory via TurkStream and ends up in other countries of Southeast Europe (including Greece…).
The 10% extraordinary energy tax imposed by the Bulgarian government on the transport and transit of Russian natural gas has caused a “state civil war” as well as the reaction of the European Commission but also the strong dissatisfaction expressed by the governments of Serbia and Hungary.
It is also noted that EU member states are in a customs union with each other and a ban has been imposed not only on customs duties between member states, but also on the unilateral imposition of “all charges having equivalent effect to a duty”.
At the same time, in Greece, the extraordinary levy on natural gas for power generation that had been imposed on the one hand as a “disincentive” for the use of the fuel in the escalation of the energy crisis, on the other as a tool to generate additional revenue for the Energy Transition Fund, is causing concern in market cycles.
Sector representatives argued that it is imperative to abolish it – along with the rest of the emergency and temporary measures introduced in the wholesale and retail electricity market – on December 31, 2023. As they explained, the levy (5% on the TTF price) increases the price in the wholesale electricity market and this implies increases in the retail market, i.e. in the electricity tariffs paid by all consumers.
