The EU had actually allowed Sweden to exempt biogas for cars from tax regulations. But now the union has regretted it and ordered the country to collect taxes again.
The EU Commission has recently completed an investigation that gives Sweden the opportunity to reintroduce the tax exemption for biogas.
The decision comes after an earlier decision in the European Court of Justice, where a similar Swedish exception to the EU's state aid rules was removed.
Sweden previously had a scheme where biogas was exempt from tax, but this scheme was declared illegal as it was deemed to be in breach of EU state aid rules.
However, the Commission's new investigation has shown that Sweden can reintroduce the tax exemption under certain conditions.
– This is welcome news for all Sweden's producers and users of biogas, says the country's finance minister Elisabeth Svantesson in a press release .
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It is still unclear when exactly the Swedish government will implement the new tax exemption.
However, it is likely that it will primarily apply to business and that private biogas users will not be covered by the scheme. Emma Wiesner, member of the European Parliament for the Center Party, calls on X (the former Twitter, ed.) the Swedish government to act quickly.
The reintroduction of the tax exemption for biogas comes at a time when sales of gas cars in Sweden are falling.
So far this year, just under 1,500 new gas cars have been registered, which corresponds to a market share of 0.6 percent. This decrease of 28 percent compared to the same period last year can be attributed to high gasoline prices and a limited selection of gas cars on the market.
It is not known what effect the new tax exemption will have on the sale of gas cars in Sweden. In Denmark, according to the latest figures from the interest organization Mobility Denmark, not a single car has been registered that runs on anything other than electricity, petrol or diesel in the course of 2024.
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