Skrekas: We will not allow profiteering to threaten society

The government will not allow profiteering to threaten society, Environment and Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas said in Parliament on Wednesday, announcing that an amendment and a ministerial decision on taxing the excessive profits of energy suppliers will be tabled in roughly two weeks.

He said the amendment will tax excessive profits in energy supply and distribution for the 11 months up to November, while a mechanism to tax excess profits in production has already been activated. "We now come to close the window in supply as well," he added.

Skrekas said the government has collected "more than 2.2 billion euros" so far and that an investigation on the taxation of excess energy company profits in other EU member-states has shown that, based on the figures so far, "Greece has taxed the most excess profits".

He said that the government will ask the Regulatory Authority for Energy to examine what amounts of these windfall profits have been recovered in all the 27 EU member-states.