A tax on energy giants’ “excess profits”, introduced by Italy in March to support families and businesses amid rising prices, has so far brought in just 2.7 billion euros, Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said on Wednesday, as quoted by AFP.

At the end of November, tax revenue from the scheme “was around €2.75 billion”, which was “in line with the government’s updated estimates”, he told parliament.

However, this amount was much lower than the more than 10 billion euros in revenue originally planned by the former government of Mario Draghi. Many companies that contested the way the tax was calculated refused to pay it.

If the Nov. 30 deadline had been set, the energy groups could have made their payments by Thursday “without penalty,” Giorgetti told the detainees.

Mario Draghi’s government has introduced a 25% tax on the “extra” income of energy companies that have benefited from rising gas and electricity prices. This tax was levied on payments subject to VAT.

In its 2023 budget proposal, the current government of Georgia Maloney foresees €2.6 billion in tax revenue from a new tax system for energy producers and distributors that is more profit-oriented.

The new scheme provides for a rate of 50% for the part of companies’ profits from 2022 that is at least 10% higher than the average of the profits declared in the last four years. This temporary measure affects about 7,000 companies.

The tax is in line with recommendations from the European Commission, which announced at the end of September that it wanted to ask for a “temporary solidarity contribution” from producers and distributors of gas, coal and oil.

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