3.2.3. Evolution of income for Special Taxes

Excise tax revenues increased by 5% in 2021 and amounted to 19,729 million euros. Special taxes were the ones that performed the worst among the major figures. Its growth in 2021 failed to reverse the sharp decline seen in 2020 and at the end of the year revenue was still 7.7% below that recorded in 2019. Within a general context of recovery, each of the taxes was affected by different factors, which made their evolution very uneven.

In the Hydrocarbon Tax, revenues grew, but less than the fall in 2020 (+11.3% compared to -15.8%). Its trajectory over the months was conditioned by the comparison with the different situations that had been experienced in 2020: strict confinement, recovery and new restrictions on mobility, which, in the latter case, were carried over to the first months of 2021 with the added effect of storm Filomena. In addition, growth was limited by the negative impact of the sharp rise in fuel prices. In the main products, those most closely linked to consumption (petrol and subsidised diesel) performed better than those most closely linked to activity, such as automotive diesel (with consumption still 8.5% lower than in 2019).

The decline in revenue from the Tobacco Tax is nothing new (it is the fifth consecutive year in which losses have been recorded). The 2.1% drop in 2021 is lower than last year (-3.1%), but more intense than those observed in previous years. The pattern is the same: cigarette consumption (-0.3%) and its average price decreased due to replacement by cheaper varieties (-0.8%, the increases from September only slightly slowed the decline) and consumption and the price of other jobs increased (2.3% and 0.5%, respectively).

In the case of the Electricity Tax, the gradual recovery in revenue was frustrated by the reduction in the rate (from 5.11% to 0.5%) since mid-September. By August, revenue had increased by 2.3% compared to 2020; At the end of the year, the drop was 12.2%. As seen, the rate reduction meant the loss of 336 million euros that would have allowed a collection similar to that of 2019, although at that time the prices were lower than those in force in 2021.

Finally, in terms of alcohol taxes, although the poor data from 2020 continued at the beginning of the year (the first revenues of 2021 correspond to the accruals of the last months of 2020 affected by the restrictions), the trend was subsequently one of progressive recovery (until March, revenue fell by almost 20% and since April it has grown by almost 21%). Overall, the result for the year was a 7% increase, but revenues were far from the 2019 figure (-12.9%).