5. Special Taxes

tax revenues from Special Taxes (II.EE.) grew by 1.1% compared to 2017 to reach 20,528 million. The Tax on Hydrocarbons (3%), on Electricity (3.5%) and on Beer (1.8%) increased. The rest saw their income decrease, highlighting in particular, due to the intensity of the fall, the Tax on Coal (-13.1%) and, due to its importance within the whole, the Tax on Tobacco Products (-1.4%). %).

The consumption of products subject to II.EE. grew in all figures (Table 5.1). In the Hydrocarbon Tax, gasoline and diesel fuel, which are the main products subject to it, grew by 2.4%, slightly above the increase in 2017 (2.1%), thanks to the rebound in subsidized diesel fuel. In the Tax on Tobacco Products, the growth (1.6%) contrasts with the sharp drop in 2017 (-6.6%), although this was exclusively a consequence of the hoarding episode that occurred in December 2016 after the last increase. of types. The same can be said of consumption in the Tax on Alcohol and Derived Beverages (1.4% in 2018 compared to -5.2% in 2017). In the Electricity Tax, the increase in consumption (1.9%) also had an exceptional component due to the existence of a month in 2017 with a billing lower than usual. Finally, in the Beer Tax, the increase in consumption is estimated at 2.3%, a rate lower than the average of around 3.5% for the last four years.

Regarding prices, energy products grew at a rate similar to that of 2017, very high in the case of hydrocarbons (9.2%, Table 9.1) and more moderate (2.2%, Table 5.6) in the case of electricity. In both, the increases were concentrated in the second half of the year. In the rest of the figures the increases were around 1% (Tables 5.2, 5.3 and 9.2). The relative stability of price increases and the rebound in consumption meant that spending on products taxed by II.EE. will go from growing 4.7% in 2017 to 6.8% in 2018 (Table 1.3).

In 2018 the legal rates remained unchanged, except for some hydrocarbons of little quantitative importance in the tax as a whole. These are natural gas, diesel and fuel oil used in the generation of electrical energy that became exempt following the entry into force of RDL15/2018, urgent measures for the energy transition and consumer protection. The effective rates did have some variation (Table 5.1), in Hydrocarbons and Beer as a consequence of the different growth of the different subject products, and in Electricity and Tobacco Processing mainly due to price increases.

The II.EE. accruals grew by 1.9% in 2018, above the 0.2% in 2017 (Table 5.1). Given the practical stability of the rates, the improvement is explained by the rebound in consumption due, to a large extent, to the recovery of alcohol and tobacco consumption after the negative behavior they had in 2017. All figures grew, except for the Tax on Intermediate Products, almost negligible, and the Tax on Coal, which registered a sharp decrease when compared to the high level of income in 2017 as a result of the use of coal as a substitute for hydraulic energy in that time. drought year.

In 2018, the Hydrocarbon Tax accrued grew by 1.8%, less than in 2017 (2.6%; Table 5.4). The main cause of the lower growth was the decrease in the consumption of natural gas, mainly due to its lower use in the production of electrical energy. Added to this fact is the elimination, at the end of the year, of the tax on natural gas, diesel and fuel oil used in the generation of electrical energy, introduced, as mentioned, by RDL 15/2018. In the most consumed products, gasoline and diesel, growth in 2018 was somewhat higher than in 2017 (2.4% and 2.1%, respectively). The improvement was produced by the rebound in the consumption of subsidized diesel fuel, closely linked to the weather situation. On the other hand, the consumption of gasoline and automotive diesel, more closely linked to the economic situation, showed more moderate growth than in 2017. The novelty in 2018 was the weight loss within the latter's consumption of automotive gasoline and diesel. The percentage of automotive diesel within the set of gasoline and automotive diesel grew from just over 50% in 1995 to a maximum of 81.3% in 2016-2017; In 2018 that percentage was reduced, for the first time since 1995, by around half a point.

The Tax on Tobacco Products increased by 2.4% in 2018, compared to the fall (-4.8%) in 2017 (Table 5.5). The change, as explained, was due to anomalies in consumer releases at the end of 2016 that distorted the normal behavior of the series. If the evolution of consumption and tax is analyzed with perspective, it is observed that both have practically stabilized since 2013, the former with 2.1 billion packs and 39.5 million kilos per year, and the latter with 6.6 billion euros. If anything, in the last two years there would be results slightly lower than the floor that consumption and taxes seem to have reached. The low growth in prices, together with the downward trend since 2014 in products other than cigarettes, has reinforced the aforementioned evolution.

The Electricity Tax accrued grew almost 3.5 points more than in 2017 (Table 5.6). Practically two points come from consumption growth, zero in 2017 and close to 2% in 2018. This growth, however, is more related to the irregularities that occurred in May 2017 in the billing of some companies than to a genuine improvement in consumption. The rest of the greater growth in 2018 came from the behavior of the effective rate on the tax base which, unlike 2017, rose slightly. It must be remembered that, although the legal rates have remained unchanged since this tax was implemented, the effective rates may vary for two reasons: the variations that occur in reductions for large consumers and other sectors with intensive electricity consumption, and changes in prices. In this case, prices did not play any role in the rise in the tax because, despite the increases observed in the second half of the year, for the year as a whole the increase was somewhat lower than in 2017.

Regarding taxes related to alcohol, the Tax accrued on Alcohol and Derived Beverages recovered (1.4%) after the drop in 2017 caused by the hoarding episode at the end of 2016. (Table 5.2). For its part, the Beer Tax grew (3.1%) at a lower rate than in 2017 (Table 5.3) due to the moderation shown in consumption, while the effective rate rose again, indicative, given the stability of the rates, a shift in consumption towards varieties with higher alcohol content.

Finally, the Coal Tax accrued decreased by 15.1%. The main reason was the high level that the tax reached in 2017 in the middle of the drought. However, the tax accrued in 2018 was close to the average for the 2014-2017 period (275 million annually).

In 2018, tax revenues from Special Taxes reached 20,528 million, 1.1% more than in 2017. The small differences with accrual, concentrated in tobacco and alcohol, are still a consequence of the transfer to 2017 of the high income accrued in the last months of 2016, after the latest rate increases.