Quick decision on lower energy tax for data center operations important for Sweden's competitiveness!
Last fall, the inquiry into a sector-neutral and competitive energy tax on electricity presented its proposal. Fortunately, the committee proposed a lower energy tax for data centers: 0.5 öre per kWh instead of the current 29.4 öre kWh, which is quite a significant difference. That a decision in accordance with the proposal is made this spring is of the utmost importance so that Sweden does not lose establishments to other countries.
For a long time, the manufacturing industry has had the lower tax on electricity compared to ordinary consumers and all other business activities. The purpose of the reduced tax level was to create international competitiveness by having a tax level comparable to other countries. Since then, a lot has happened - both with industry and tax rates and the price of electricity. Today, it is not only traditional industry that is a major electricity consumer and internationally competitive, but also the entire IT sector and its server halls. In other words, it was high time for a change, something that both we and other stakeholders have been calling for for several years.
In our consultation response, we are of course in favor of the reduction, and our goal has been to ensure that as many member companies as possible are covered by this. However, the proposal means that the lower level only applies to facilities of a certain size, an installed capacity of at least 0.5 MW. This can be justified from an environmental point of view, as larger halls are generally more modern and energy-efficient than older and smaller halls, but creates demarcation problems for companies that are just above and below this limit. Which is of course not good from a competition point of view. We therefore propose an additional rule that says that the total power of the company's server halls should be added up and not just look at each individual facility. In this way, more of our member companies will reach the limit. We also emphasize that it is important that decisions are made quickly - so that Sweden does not lose possible establishments of larger data centers.
Our Nordic neighbors have already decided on reductions to the corresponding level. But both Finland and Norway have decided on a limit of 5 MW to get a lower electricity tax. In view of this, we should be pleased with the committee's proposal and hope that it will now be implemented as soon as possible!