Today, the energy company ČEZ received 1.484 billion crowns from the state. This is interest on arrears in a dispute over the gift tax paid by the company on emission allowances for 2011 and 2012. Income will increase the company’s net profit for the fourth quarter of this year. The company announced it on its website today . CEZ’s majority shareholder is the state, which holds about 70 percent of the company’s shares through the Ministry of Finance. The state will receive about 20 billion crowns on the dividend approved this year of 52 crowns per share.
The announcement was announced by the Reuters agency and the News List server. CEZ has previously ruled on CEZ’s right to a refund of part of the gift tax and interest on arrears. CEZ has been in dispute with the Financial Administration over the refund of the overpayment of gift tax. According to the server, they ended last December after the Supreme Administrative Court rejected the cassation complaints of the Appellate Finance Directorate.
CEZ expected an interest payment. When announcing the half-year results in August, the expected revenue of 1.5 billion crowns was mentioned by Martin Novák, the director of the finance division, as one of the reasons why the company improved its full-year profit outlook to 21 to 23 billion crowns from the previous 19 to 22 billion outlook. CEZ’s net profit in the first half of this year fell by 89 percent year on year to 1.6 billion crowns. Operating income rose 2 percent to 108.2 billion and operating profit before depreciation (EBITDA) fell 18 percent to 31.6 billion.
Thirty-two percent taxation of emission allowances was introduced for 2011 and 2012 by the government of Prime Minister Petr Nečas, and the money raised partially covered support for renewable energy sources. This moderated the rise in electricity prices for businesses and households. The state collected 4.8 billion crowns in the tax on emission allowances in 2011, a year later CZK 2.7 billion.
According to the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the tax of 2011 and 2012 was not in line with EU law if it was subject to more than ten percent of allowances. According to European Union directives, 90 percent of allowances were to be allocated to companies free of charge. Like ČEZ, in the past, the energy supplier for the Mladá Boleslav carmaker Škoda Auto Ško-Energo, Unipetrol, Dalkia and the Alpiq heating plant applied for a tax refund.