Energy/France: The tax on excess profits could cost EDF billions of euros, reports Les Echos


(Reuters) – The French government’s proposed tax on profits deemed excessive in electricity could represent a loss of around 5 billion euros for EDF in 2023, the daily Les Echos reported on Thursday.

This tax, introduced via a government amendment to the finance bill (PLF) for 2023, currently under discussion in the Senate, aims to cap the sale prices of nuclear and renewable energy at 100 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh). .

EDF would be “by far” the largest contributor to this tax, which should bring 11 billion euros to the state budget next year, according to Les Echos.

EDF declined to comment on this information.

The government announced in October its desire to cap the price of electricity collected by producers, but at 180 euros per MWh, as part of a broader policy of the European Union.

This decision should weigh more on the finances of EDF, in the process of being nationalized, which has issued several warnings on its profits this year due to problems with its nuclear reactors.

The energy company lowered its estimate of nuclear production in France for 2022 in early November, due to the impact of strikes on the maintenance of its reactors and the extension of the shutdown period of 4 nuclear reactors.

In addition, the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) on Tuesday declared compliant the draft simplified public tender offer for EDF launched by the French government, for an estimated cost of just over 9.6 billion euros. .

(Tassilo Hummel, written by Kate Entringer)

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