Abstract:

The European Union (EU) own resources system should support sustainable development, understood as integrated social, economic and ecological growth. However the current system meets the sustainability criteria poorly and requires change. The High Level Group on Own Resources (HLGOR) recommends an Electricity Tax on consumption as one of the new bases for the EU own resources system. The paper examines whether the excise duty on electricity in Poland supports sustainable development by fair taxation of households and thus is a suitable candidate for the EU own resources scheme. The analysis shows that in the years 1993 – 2014 the excise duty on electricity could even be more than full shifted on households. However it does not affect the prices of electricity significantly. With reasonable rates the Electricity Tax-based EU own resource is acceptable.