Latest news from the Riksdag / electronics tax

On April 19, the Riksdag voted on two motions from members of parliament in the government parties that had been discussed in the Tax Committee and that both proposed that the Riksdag should issue an announcement that the government would evaluate the electronics tax – known in the Riksdag as the chemicals tax. The motions are described as follows in the Tax Committee's summary:

“In motion 2022/23:1816 by Sten Bergheden (M), an announcement is proposed to consider a review and evaluation of the chemicals tax. In motion 2022/23:1514 by Larry Söder (KD), an announcement is proposed to evaluate the impact of the harmful chemicals tax.”

Tax Committee

What was actually discussed in the tax committee is not entirely clear, but it turned out that even some of the parties that have so far demanded both further investigations of the tax's side effects and even the abolition of the electronics tax now did not even want to make an announcement about seriously investigating the tax's repercussions on companies and consumers. This is how it is written:

“The committee’s position

In the 2017 budget bill, the government assessed that the tax and its design should be reviewed and updated at regular intervals, and in the 2023 budget bill, the government proposed a simpler and clearer chemicals tax. The committee welcomed and endorsed the proposal (report 2022/23:SkU1y). Against this background, the committee is not prepared to make an announcement to the government about evaluating or phasing out the tax.”

Voting in the Riksdag

The vote in the chamber took place on 19 April. The result shows that 218 of the members of the Riksdag voted according to the tax committee and thus against the motions for further evaluation. Most of the votes came from V, MP, S, C but also from L, KD and M. Only 64 members voted for a continued investigation. These votes mainly came from SD members. See the voting result above in the picture from the Riksdag.

This means that the electronics tax will continue to burden companies and consumers because politicians continue to blindly believe that this tax provides environmental benefits when in reality it only burdens production and trading companies with heavy administration and consumers with increased prices on washing machines, TVs, computer games, refrigerators, mobile phones, etc.

Soon 2.6 billion

In addition, the Ministry of Finance's miscalculation of the consequences of removing the right to deduct reactive added flame retardants as of July 1 this year will affect consumers even more, as all tax deductions for reactive added substances, which have been possible until now, will now be eliminated. The tax collection, which is currently SEK 1.6 billion per year, will then become a full SEK 2.6 billion on an annual basis.

APPLiA's work to replace the electronics tax with effective measures within EU legislation continues.

Text: Kent Oderud

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