IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/77594.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On the Effect of an Increase in the VAT on Electricity in Portugal

Author

Listed:
  • Pereira, Alfredo
  • Pereira, Rui

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the budgetary, economic, distributional and environmental effects of a permanent increase in Portugal of the value added tax on electricity spending. The analysis in conducted in the context of a new multi-sector and multi-household dynamic general equilibrium model of the Portuguese economy. Simulation results suggest that a permanent increase in the VAT on electricity from 6% to 23% has positive budgetary and environmental effects but both come at the cost of detrimental economic and distributional effects. As economic performance in Portugal improves and the public budgetary situation becomes less constraining, it is inevitable that pressure will mount for this increase in the VAT rate on electricity to be reversed. This mixed bag of results provides an important element in this debate. Reverting to a VAT tax rate of 6% on electricity, would improve economic performance and have positive distributional effects. From this perspective such reversion would be desirable. The question is then whether or not the public budget can somehow compensate for the loss of revenues in a way that would not eliminate the positive economic and distributional effects of such reversion.

Suggested Citation

  • Pereira, Alfredo & Pereira, Rui, 2017. "On the Effect of an Increase in the VAT on Electricity in Portugal," MPRA Paper 77594, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:77594
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/77594/1/MPRA_paper_77594.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pereira, Alfredo M. & Pereira, Rui M., 2014. "On the environmental, economic and budgetary impacts of fossil fuel prices: A dynamic general equilibrium analysis of the Portuguese case," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 248-261.
    2. Fortes, Patrícia & Pereira, Rui & Pereira, Alfredo & Seixas, Júlia, 2014. "Integrated technological-economic modeling platform for energy and climate policy analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 716-730.
    3. Alfredo Marvão Pereira & Rui M. Pereira, 2013. "Environmental Fiscal Reform and Fiscal Consolidation: The Quest for the Third Dividend in Portugal," Working Papers 114, Department of Economics, College of William and Mary.
    4. Pedro G. Rodrigues & Alfredo M. Pereira, 2000. "On The Impact Of A Tax Reform Package In Portugal," Computing in Economics and Finance 2000 353, Society for Computational Economics.
    5. Alfredo M. Pereira & Pedro G. Rodrigues, 2004. "Strategies for Fiscal Reform in the Context of the EMU: the Case of Portugal," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(1), pages 141-163, February.
    6. Alfredo M. Pereira & Pedro G. Rodrigues, 2002. "On the impact of a tax shock in Portugal," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 1(3), pages 205-236, December.
    7. Alfredo M. Pereira & Rui M. Pereira, 2014. "Environmental Fiscal Reform and Fiscal Consolidation," Public Finance Review, , vol. 42(2), pages 222-253, March.
    8. Simões, Sofia & Cleto, João & Fortes, Patri­cia & Seixas, Júlia & Huppes, Gjalt, 2008. "Cost of energy and environmental policy in Portuguese CO2 abatement--scenario analysis to 2020," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 3598-3611, September.
    9. Alfredo Marvão Pereira & Rui M. Pereira, 2012. "DGEP - A Dynamic General Equilibrium Model of the Portuguese Economy: Model Documentation," Working Papers 127, Department of Economics, College of William and Mary.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pereira, Alfredo & Pereira, Rui, 2016. "On the Optimal Use of Revenues from a CO2 Tax and the Importance of Labor Market Conditions," MPRA Paper 77630, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Alfredo M. Pereira & Rui M. Pereira, 2017. "Reducing carbon emissions in Portugal: the relative roles of fossil fuel prices, energy efficiency, and carbon taxation," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(10), pages 1825-1852, October.
    3. Alfredo Marvao Pereira & Rui Marvao Pereira, 2019. "Achieving the triple dividend in Portugal: a dynamic general-equilibrium evaluation of a carbon tax indexed to emissions trading," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 148-163, April.
    4. Pereira, Alfredo M. & Pereira, Rui M. & Rodrigues, Pedro G., 2016. "A new carbon tax in Portugal: A missed opportunity to achieve the triple dividend?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 110-118.
    5. Pereira, Alfredo & Pereira, Rui, 2017. "The Role of Electricity for the Decarbonization of the Portuguese Economy - DGEP Technical Report," MPRA Paper 84782, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Rui M. Pereira & Alfredo M. Pereira, 2017. "The Economic and Budgetary Impact of Climate Policy in Portugal: Carbon Taxation in a Dynamic General Equilibrium Model with Endogenous Public Sector Behavior," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 67(2), pages 231-259, June.
    7. Alfredo Marvão Pereira & Rui M. Pereira, 2012. "DGEP - A Dynamic General Equilibrium Model of the Portuguese Economy: Model Documentation," Working Papers 127, Department of Economics, College of William and Mary.
    8. Pereira, Alfredo M. & Pereira, Rui M., 2014. "On the environmental, economic and budgetary impacts of fossil fuel prices: A dynamic general equilibrium analysis of the Portuguese case," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 248-261.
    9. Alfredo Marvão Pereira & Rui M. Pereira & Pedro G. Rodrigues, 2014. "On the Long-Term Impact of a Fiscal Devaluation: An Application to the Portuguese Case," Working Papers 116, Department of Economics, College of William and Mary.
    10. Alfredo Pereira & Rui Pereira, 2013. "Fossil fuel prices and the economic and budgetary challenges of a small energy-importing economy: the case of Portugal," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 12(3), pages 181-214, December.
    11. Alfredo M. Pereira & Rui M. Pereira, 2014. "Environmental Fiscal Reform and Fiscal Consolidation," Public Finance Review, , vol. 42(2), pages 222-253, March.
    12. Hájek, Miroslav & Zimmermannová, Jarmila & Helman, Karel & Rozenský, Ladislav, 2019. "Analysis of carbon tax efficiency in energy industries of selected EU countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    13. Maruf Rahman Maxim, 2020. "Environmental fiscal reform and the possibility of triple dividend in European and non-European countries: evidence from a meta-regression analysis," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 22(4), pages 633-656, October.
    14. Vít Pászto & Jarmila Zimmermannová & Jolana Skaličková & Judit Sági, 2020. "Spatial Patterns in Fiscal Impacts of Environmental Taxation in the EU," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-18, November.
    15. Pereira, Alfredo Marvão & Pereira, Rui Manuel, 2018. "A lower vat rate on electricity in Portugal: Towards a cleaner environment, better economic performance, and less inequality," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 1-13.
    16. Maruf Rahman Maxim & Kerstin Zander, 2019. "Can a Green Tax Reform Entail Employment Double Dividend in European and non-European Countries? A Survey of the Empirical Evidence," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 9(3), pages 218-228.
    17. Carrilho-Nunes, Inês & Catalão-Lopes, Margarida, 2022. "The effects of environmental policy and technology transfer on GHG emissions: The case of Portugal," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 255-264.
    18. Julien Lefevre, 2018. "Modeling the Socioeconomic Impacts of the Adoption of a Carbon Pricing Instrument – Literature review," CIRED Working Papers hal-03128619, HAL.
    19. Xin Su & Frédéric Ghersi & Fei Teng & Gaëlle Le Treut & Meicong Liang, 2022. "The economic impact of a deep decarbonisation pathway for China: a hybrid model analysis through bottom-up and top-down linking," Post-Print hal-03897206, HAL.
    20. Du, Huibin & Li, Qun & Liu, Xi & Peng, Binbin & Southworth, Frank, 2021. "Costs and potentials of reducing CO2 emissions in China's transport sector: Findings from an energy system analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Value Added Tax on Electricity; Dynamic Multi-Sector General Equilibrium; Portugal;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D58 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Computable and Other Applied General Equilibrium Models
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q43 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy and the Macroeconomy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:77594. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.