Thursday 10 June 2010

Electricity and VAT on the rise...

SPAIN
The government regulatory authorities, i.e. the Industry Ministry, are planning a rise of an average 4% in electricity bills for later this year. This coincides with a rise of 2% (from 16% to 18%) in the Impuesto de Valor Añadido (IVA, the equivalent to VAT) set for July 1. At the bottom end of the scale of electricity rises are small and medium companies (pymes, including the self-employed, about 5% rise) with households at the top (approximately 10%). While the rises are in the planning and pre-approval stages, consumer organizations are already saying that the price of electricity has risen by 26.1% in 30 months, which is six times the rise of the cost of living index (IPC in its Spanish acronym).>
Sources: FACUA , the non-profit consumers organization with a site in English, French and Italian , though not always as updated as the Spanish version. Nevertheless, it makes interesting reading.

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