MADRID, 16 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The CEO of Repsol, Josu Jon Imaz, has affirmed, regarding the tax established by the Government to tax the sales of energy companies with revenues of more than 1,000 million per year at 1.2%, that a benefit derived from a "great investment effort" is "unfair and incomprehensible".

"Considering a benefit obtained from a great investment effort as extraordinary and penalizing it against those who import products from other continents without creating a single industrial job, is, in addition to being unfair, incomprehensible and detrimental to the Spanish economy," he stressed. .

As he indicated on the occasion of the presentation of the company's results, the social debate on business benefits must be put into context.

"Populist messages only serve to hinder business activity, provoke investor mistrust, reduce investment and economic activity, decrease tax collection and put industrial employment at risk. Faced with these messages, Repsol is committed to a path of responsibility to society," he said.

Likewise, he stressed that the energy transition that Europe and Spain are undergoing "should be a transition that is less ideological and more technological; a transition that addresses how to be more sustainable, but also how to guarantee energy supply and cheaper and more competitive energy for citizens and companies.

"The high energy prices we pay today are not just a consequence of the war in Ukraine. The scarcity of energy products already existed before. In Europe we are highly dependent on imports because regulators have preferred to forget the need to invest in oil and gas and , also, in refining capacity", he added.

Imaz has also stated that energy prices increase because demand rises, "at the same time that, contrary to what logic would dictate, difficulties are imposed on the production of some energy products." "The high prices are not 'fallen from heaven', they are the consequence of the wrong decisions taken in Europe," he said.