Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 September 2024
200. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Finance the cumulative value of the tax reliefs and supports his Department has provided for business to tackle increased energy costs since 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36960/24]
View answerThis Government has provided a suite of measures to counteract the impact on businesses of increased energy costs including the Increased Cost of Business Scheme (ICOB), the Business Users Support Scheme for Kerosene (BUSSK) and the Ukraine Enterprise Support Scheme which came under the remit of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. With regard to measures introduced by my Department, the Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS) was designed to help mitigate the expected impact of elevated energy costs arising from the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
TBESS was available to tax compliant businesses who experienced significant increases in electricity or natural gas costs and covered the period of September 2022 to July 2023.
The total number of businesses around the country that benefitted from the scheme was 25,523. Businesses received direct payments of €141.25 million and tax liability offsets of €12.6 million, resulting in a total value of €153.85 million. The majority of claims paid out were to the wholesale and retail trade, the accommodation and food sectors and the manufacturing sector. Over €82 million of the total value of claims were paid out to businesses with less than 50 employees.
Revenue has published the list of businesses who received payments under the TBESS and a final statistics report which is available on the Revenue website: www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/documents/statistics/registrations/cost-living/tbess-25-april-2024.pdf .
The estimated total cost of the temporary reduction of VAT on gas and electricity for the period May 2022 to October 2024 is €521 million, this includes both households and businesses.
Finally, a significant extension to the Tax Debt Warehousing Scheme announced in October 2022 allowed participants until 1 May 2024 to make arrangements to repay their warehoused debt. This extension was put in place to assist businesses experiencing cash-flow issues and trading issues during this period of higher energy costs.
