Ireland: Minister of Finance announces VAT reduction from 13.5% to 9% on gas and energy bills starting May 1
Paschal Donohoe, Minister for Finance announced a temporary VAT cut on fuel bills would result in savings of more than 50 EUR on an annual gas bill and 70 EUR on an annual electricity bill.
The VAT reduction from 13.5% to 9% will take effect on May 1 and will run until October 31.
He projected that the VAT rate cut will cost the Exchequer 46 million EUR. The excise tax reductions announced last month on gasoline and diesel will be in effect until Budget 2023. By October 2022, the Public Service Obligation (PSO) Levy will be zero.
According to Minister Donohoe, this would assist more than 370,000 of the neediest households that are struggling to pay their energy expenditures. The Government has now addressed the increases in the cost of living with measures totaling a little below 1.9 billion EUR.
The temporary VAT rate drop was “introduced in consideration of both the issue of the cost of living, but also, in particular, to counteract the rise in the carbon tax, which will take effect on 1 May.“
Furthermore, Donohoe confirmed that the government has “no intentions or ability” to do more, as they have already adopted the greatest decrease in excise tax and reduction in VAT rates in recent history.
Source: thejournal.ie
