5. Special Taxes

The income from Special Taxes (II.EE.) totaled 21,380 million, which represented an increase of 4.1% compared to 2018 income. Now, the entire increase was a product of the integration of the old regional rate into the special Hydrocarbon Tax rate. Income without any regulatory change (regional tariff and exemption of natural gas, diesel and fuel oil intended for the production of electrical energy) would have decreased by 0.8%. The three fundamental features of the year were the small increase in Hydrocarbons (0.3% without regulatory changes), the new decrease in Tobacco Labor (-1.3%) and the reduction by almost half (-48.7%). of the collection of the Carbon Tax.

Except for beverages included in alcohol taxes, consumption of products subject to II.EE. was worse in 2019 than in 2018 (Table 5.1). In the Hydrocarbon Tax, gasoline and diesel as a whole, the main products of the tax, grew by only 0.5% (2.4% in 2018). Part of the moderation comes from subsidized diesel fuel, which in 2018 had grown above normal and fell in 2019, but the key explanatory factor is the drop in automotive diesel fuel. The consumption of packs of tobacco also decreased (-1.9%, +1.6% in 2018), although it was partially offset by the increase in the rest of tobacco products, and the consumption of electrical energy (-1.8 %, compared to 2% the previous year). As has been said, growth was only seen in alcohols and also with more intensity than in 2018: 1.7% in the Tax on Alcohol and Derived Beverages and 2.3% in the Tax on Beer (1% and 0.9%, each of them in 2018).

Prices in 2019 behaved much more moderately than in 2018. In energy products the increases were much smaller: In hydrocarbons, the average price of gasoline and diesel oil only increased by 1.2% (compared to the average of 9% in the previous two years; Table 9.1), and in electricity the increase was 0.9% (3% on average in 2017 and 2018; Table 5.7). In tobacco, the average price of a pack remained practically stable (-0.2%), although the greater growth of the cheapest products led the average price of all tax items to a greater drop, -0.4%, Table 9.2 ). In alcoholic beverages, a decrease in average prices was also recorded (-0.4%; Table 5.2) and only in beer was a rebound observed (2.9% in 2019 and 0.2% in 2018; Table 5.3). The moderation of consumption and prices resulted in a growth in the value of consumption taxed with II.EE. 0.6% compared to 7.2% in 2018 (Tables 1.3 and 5.1).

In 2019, the effective rates (Table 5.1) only responded to changes in the composition of the product basket and to price variations in those taxes based on value. It must be clarified that, in the case of hydrocarbons, which was the only figure in which regulatory changes occurred, the effective rate is calculated for the general rate and for the main products (gasoline and diesel). With a broader vision, the effective rate of this tax would have changed for two reasons: the exemption introduced by RDL 15/2018, of October of that year, for natural gas, diesel and fuel oil used in the generation of electrical energy, and the integration of the regional rate into the special tax rate. Regarding the latter, the measure not only entailed a redistribution in the way that part of the tax was paid, but also an increase in the rate by equalizing the rate in all the Autonomous Communities. without any of them losing revenue.

The II.EE. accrued grew by 5.5% (Table 5.1), but the entire increase came from the integration of the regional rate, which led to an additional increase in the accrued tax of 1,466 million. Without this income, the II.EE. accrued would have decreased by 1.7% compared to 2018. The main reason for the decrease is, as has been analyzed, the poor performance of consumption, to which were added the negative impact of RDL 15/2018, the limited increase in prices and the progressive disappearance of coal as a raw material in the production of electrical energy.

The Hydrocarbon Tax accrued grew by 12.5% thanks, fundamentally, to the inclusion of the regional rate. Without it or the loss of income caused by RDL 15/2018, the increase would be only 0.3%, consistent with the evolution of consumption of the main products, gasoline and diesel (0.5%). The increase in consumption in 2019 was clearly lower than in 2018 (2.4%), for two reasons: In 2018 there was a rise in consumption of subsidized diesel fuel that was corrected in 2019 (in 2018 a consumption of almost 5,800 million liters was reached when the normal norm in previous years was not to exceed 5,550; in 2019 there were more than 5,600) and the slight drop in automotive diesel (-0.2%). This drop is significant for several reasons. Firstly, because it is the most consumed product and the one that brings in the highest revenue. Second, because it is closely linked to the activity; In fact, previously there had only been declines in the crisis years (2008 to 2013). And third reason, because it accentuates the trend, which was already mentioned in last year's report as a novelty, to the substitution of diesel for gasoline, a product that in 2019 grew by 6.7% after 4.5% in 2018. . As noted then, 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 2019 that percentage was already less than 80%. This transformation also represents a slight increase in the average effective rates of these two products, without the subsidized diesel (one tenth in 2018 and three in 2019).

The Tax on Tobacco Products decreased by 1.4% in 2019, with a 2% decrease in cigarettes and a 3.7% increase in other products. Graph 5.2 clearly illustrates the zigzagging evolution of the tax, although since 2013, as already mentioned in last year's report, it has stabilized somewhat below 6.6 billion euros. The same thing happens with consumption, although there is a slightly downward trend that compensates for small price variations. However, it was not the case in 2019 in which consumption and prices fell simultaneously, although with very different behavior in cigarettes (with losses in both) and in the rest of the products (with growth).

The Electricity Tax accrued was practically the same as in 2018 (+0.1%). The year was negative in consumption (-1.8%) and moderate increases in prices (0.9%), especially in comparison with the previous year in which growth of 2% and 3.4% was recorded. , respectively. The reduction in value, which is the base of the tax, by 1% was not observed in the tax because at the same time the amount of the reductions applied by some taxpayers (large consumers, specific sectors) decreased, recovering these to the level that they had in 2017.

In taxes on alcohol the situation was more positive than in the rest of the figures. The Tax on Alcohol and Derived Beverages accrued grew by 1.8% compared to 1% the previous year. With hardly any changes in the effective rate, the entire increase was due to improved consumption. And the same thing happened in the Beer Tax with an increase of 2.3%, which exceeds the 1.7% in 2018.

The Coal Tax was the one that varied the most in 2019. The tax accrued decreased by 68% as a result, on the one hand, of the lower attractiveness of coal as a raw material in the generation of electrical energy after natural gas for the same purpose was declared exempt from the Hydrocarbon Tax, and, on the other, due to the decision of large electricity producers to progressively abandon this form of production.

In 2019, revenue from Excise Taxes grew by 4.1%, although if the effect of the integration of the regional rate and the negative impact of the natural gas exemption is eliminated, revenue would decrease by 0.8%. The cash impact of the two measures together (Table 1.5) is lower than that reflected in accrual because the positive effect of the integration is smaller (only that corresponding to 11 months and also includes the returns to transport professionals linked to that part of the rate) and the greater negative (one month more than accrual).