Vooruit, a member of Belgium’s federal governing coalition, has tabled a bill to strengthen protection against rising energy prices by returning more extra VAT revenue to households when prices are high.
The proposal was submitted by Oskar Seuntjens, leader of the Flemish socialists’ parliamentary group.
It would keep the current price-protection mechanism, under which excise duties are reduced when energy prices rise above a set threshold.
Those thresholds are set at €100 per megawatt hour for natural gas and €250 per megawatt hour for electricity.
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Vooruit wants to change the reference used to calculate the excise-duty reduction.
Once the thresholds are exceeded, the VAT reimbursement would be calculated on the basis of a new reference price: €75 per megawatt hour for gas and €150 per megawatt hour for electricity.
In the event of exceptionally high prices, a second phase would be triggered through an “emergency button”, leading to the maximum reimbursement of excise duties.
Vooruit said the measure is intended to protect purchasing power by returning to households the additional revenue collected by the authorities.
Seuntjens said the proposal could be worth up to €100 a year for citizens, speaking on the Radio 1 programme De Ochtend.
“The wars in Ukraine and Iran are continuing, gas reserves in Belgium and Europe have not been sufficiently replenished, and the cold season is approaching. We want to do everything possible to keep energy bills as low as possible,” the socialist MP said.
He added that, in his view, the measure could be budget-neutral.
