Last update: May 20th 2014
Title of the measure:
IND-NLD6: Energy Tax, industry
( Energiebelasting, industrie)
General description
The Energy Tax (ET) is a levy on energy consumption that improves the yield of measures
focussed on energy saving thereby making energy savings more attractive (by changing
behaviour or by investing in energy-saving technologies). The level of the tax has been adapted a
number of times (see table 1).
The energy tax is levied on:
•
Gas
•
Compressed natural gas
•
Electricity
•
Renewable energy – gas
•
Renewable energy – electricity
•
Gas oil
•
Semi-fluid oil
•
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)
Before 2005 the Energy tax was called Regulating Energy Tax (REB). The REB was introduced
on January the first 1996 (Staatsblad 13 December 1995, 662) as part of a “greening” of the tax
system. The revenue of the energy tax is channelled back to the taxpayers through a lower tax on
income (households) or wages (companies). Until 2005 the REB did stimulate the use of green
energy as this was (partly) exempted from paying the REB levy. Energy distribution companies
also used the revenues of the REB to lower the price of sustainable energy. Producers of
sustainable energy received extra compensation for the delivered energy.
Since 2004 the level of the ET is defined for a number of trenches in energy consumption for all
types of customers alike. Each consumer pays a high levy for the first amount of energy use and
ever lower levies for consecutive trenches. In this way the average ET per kWh electricity or m3
gas is much larger for small consumers than for large consumers. As shown in Table 1 the tax on
electricity use above 10 million kWh was for the whole period € 0,50, while it increased from
2003-2014 for the smallest users by € 54,60, the medium use by € 22,40 and € 5,20. For natural
gas the tax on the use above 1 million m3 increased from 2004 to 2014 by € 4,20 while this was
for the smallest users an increase of € 116,70. Additional the companies that participate in the
LTAs or the Benchmarking Convenant were excluded from this energy tax.
The measure was included in a cross cutting measure “Energy Tax” in the Dutch NEEAP1,
NEEAP2 and NEEAP3.
On September 6th 2013 more than 40 organisations – including the Dutch government, employers,
trade unions, NGO’s and the financial sector – signed the National Energy Agreement for a
sustainable growth. This agreement focusses on energy saving, clean technology and climate
policy. The agreement has to result in payable and clean energy supply, employment and
opportunities for the Netherlands in clean technologies markets.
As for the industrial sector, there ought to be an energy efficiency improvement by 1.5 % yearly
or an energy saving of 100 PJ on the final energy consumption in 2020 with respect to the
reference projection 2012 of ECN/PBL. The policy mix consists of energy saving, renewable
energy, ETS and a few new instruments (such as individual agreements with ETS-enterprises (not
only regarding LTA) and the EPK (an energy performance check).
Netherlands Enterprise Agency,
Ministry of Economic Affairs
Last update: May 20th 2014
The Energy Tax will be playing an important role in the policy mix regarding energy savings. The
National Energy Agreement states that loss in tax revenues due to the agreement will be
compensated by and increase in the levies from the Energy Tax. Half of this increase is to be paid
by citizens and the other half by companies.
In the industrial sector the Energy Tax is not just an instrument to stimulate the actions on energy
savings. Companies that take part in the voluntary agreements (LTA3 and LEE or LTA-ETS), are
exempted from the energy tax on electricity. If the participants do not or insufficiently meet the
obligations of the covenant, they can be excluded from further participation; as a consequence,
they are no longer exempted form the Energy Tax.
Measure Impact Level
low
medium
high
Impact evaluation (methods and results)
Methods
The effect of the measure on the industrial energy efficiency is negligible, because of the fact that
when the industrial use is more than 1 mln m3 of gas and 10 mln kWh, the energy tax is not
obliged (Jeeninga, 2002).
Results
The tables 1 and 2 show the tax tariffs for industries: table 1 for electricity and table 2 for natural
gas.
Table 1. Tax tariffs for industries, electricity
€/ 1000 kWh
Year
< 10 MWh
> 10 MWh50 MWh
> 50 MWh10.000 MWh
> 10.000 Mwh
(business use)
1-1-2003
1-1-2004
1-10-2005
1-1-2006
1-1-2007
1-1-2008
1-1-2009
1-1-2010
1-1-2011
1-1-2012
1-1-2013
1-1-2014
63,90
65,40
69,90
70,50
71,60
75,20
108,50
111,40
112,10
114,00
116,50
118,50
20,70
21,20
26,30
34,30
36,90
37,50
39,80
40,60
40,80
41,50
42,40
43,10
6,30
6,50
8,60
9,40
10,20
10,40
10,60
10,80
10,90
11,10
11,30
11,50
0,50
0,50
0,50
0,50
0,50
0,50
0,50
0,50
0,50
0,50
0,50
Source: Ministry of Finance, Tax Office, website
Netherlands Enterprise Agency,
Ministry of Economic Affairs
Last update: May 20th 2014
Table 2. Tax tariffs for industries, natural gas
€ / 1.000 m3
Year
> 5.000170.000 m3
>170.0001 mln m3
> 1 mln10 mln m3
> 10 mln m3
(business use)
1-10-2002
1-1-2003
1-7-2003
1-1-2004
1-7-2004
1-10-2004
1-10-2005
1-1-2006
1-1-2007
1-1-2008
1-1-2009
1-1-2010
1-1-2011
1-1-2012
1-1-2013
1-1-2014
57,90
60,00
60,00
72,70
72,70
72,70
101,90
123,80
134,20
136,20
138,50
141,10
141,90
144,30
186,201
189,40
10,70
11,10
11,10
22,70
22,70
22,70
31,10
34,00
37,20
37,80
38,40
39,40
39,30
40,00
43,90
44,60
11,30
11,30
11,30
11,50
11,60
11,80
12,00
12,20
12,40
12,50
12,70
16,00
16,30
7,50
7,50
7,60
7,70
7,80
7,90
8,00
8,00
8,20
8,20
8,30
11,50
11,70
Source: Ministry of Finance, Tax Office, website
Historical data
Ex-post evaluation
direct CO2 (kt)
Energy (TJ)
(Fuels/Electricity)
Ex-ante evaluation
direct CO2 (kt)
Energy (TJ)
(Fuels/Electricity)
1995
2000
2010
2020
1995
2000
2010
2020
Interaction of measures
Mitigating interactions with:
 C-NLD1:
Energy Tax (cross-cutting measure)
 IND-NLD13: Long Term Agreements with the industry, second phase
 IND-NLD17: Benchmarking Agreement (completed)
 IND-NLD19: Long Term Agreements with the industry, third phase
 IND-NLD21: Long Term Agreement ETS
Reinforcing interactions with:
 none
1
Since January 1st 2013 the first two trenches (< 5.000 m3 and >5.000-170.000 m3) for natural gas have been merged
Netherlands Enterprise Agency,
Ministry of Economic Affairs
Last update: May 20th 2014
References
Jeeninga H.(2002), Honig E., Dril A.W.N. van, Harmsen R., Effect van Energie- en Milieubeleid
op Broeikasgasemissies in de periode 1990-2000, ECN-C--02-004, Petten, 2002 (In Dutch)
English abstract
http://www.ecn.nl/library/reports/2002e/c02015.html
Energy Tax, Ministry of Finance, Tax Office
http://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontentnl/belastingdienst/zakelijk/overige_be
lastingen/belastingen_op_milieugrondslag/energiebelasting/energiebelasting
Energy Tax, Ministry of Finance, Tax Office, Tax tariffs
http://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontentnl/belastingdienst/zakelijk/overige_be
lastingen/belastingen_op_milieugrondslag/tarieven_milieubelastingen/tabellen_tarieven_milieube
lastingen
Energy Tax, Ministry of Finance, Tax Office, Exemption
http://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontentnl/belastingdienst/zakelijk/overige_be
lastingen/belastingen_op_milieugrondslag/teruggaafregelingen/
The Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER), Energy Agreement for sustainable
growth, 6 September 2013
http://www.energieakkoordser.nl/energieakkoord.aspx
Netherlands Enterprise Agency,
Ministry of Economic Affairs