Member States Could Help Fund EU With Part Of Oil Tax Revenues

The European Union's member states could potentially set aside part of their tax revenues from oil to help fund the bloc, EU Budget & HR Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said in an interview with Germany's daily Handelsblatt published on Tuesday.

Oettinger, a German native himself, said that it could be worth mulling over directing a small part -- one or two eurocents per liter - of the oil tax revenue for contribution to the EU budget. This would allow countries such as Germany, the EU's biggest economy, to reduce their direct contributions to the EU and use the funds they save to reduce domestic taxes, according to Oettinger.

The EU budget commissioner also thinks that it would be a good idea to put the funds from an increase in the cost of carbon dioxide emissions trading certificates to help fund the EU budget.

Currently, the three main sources of revenue for the EU are a small percentage of gross national income (GNI), usually around 0.7 percent, contributed by all EU countries; a small percentage of each EU member state's standardized value-added tax revenue, usually around 0.3 percent; and a large share of import duties on non-EU products (the country that collects the duty retains a small percentage). The EU also receives income tax from EU staff, contributions by non-EU countries to some EU programs, and fines on companies that breach EU rules and regulations.

However, the UK, one of the potentially big oil tax revenue contributors to the EU budget, is leaving the bloc after last year's referendum resulted in the majority of the UK citizens voting to leave the European Union.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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