According to the personal interpretation of the Director of the Tax Chamber in Katowice on 19 January 2016 The signature. IBPP4/4513-193/15/MK the amount of electricity exempt from excise duty may be determined by estimation (without the use of measuring devices).
The interpretation of the Director of the Tax Chamber in Katowice concerns a company licensed to produce and trade electricity. The main activity of the applicant is the extraction and processing of copper ore. The company produces electricity, which is then consumed in metal processing processes.
According to Article 9(1) Excise duty laws (Journal of Laws of 2009, item 11), in the case of electricity, excise duty is, inter alia, the consumption of electricity by an operator licensed to manufacture or distribute it. In turn Article 30(7a)(3) The same law provides for an exemption for electricity used in metallurgical processes.
It follows from the wording of the provisions cited above that there is no obligation to pay excise duty on the part of the applicant for the interpretation in question in respect of electricity produced in its own plants and subsequently consumed in the copper treatment process.
However, the question concerns the fact that the equipment used in the metallurgical processes of the company does not have any measuring equipment installed to indicate the amount of energy consumed. For this reason, the applicant may determine the amount of electricity used in metal production only by estimation.
The company’s question in the request for interpretation concerned the possibility of exempting from excise duty the electricity consumed in the process described despite the lack of measuring equipment.
The Director of the Tax Chamber in Katowice took a position favourable to the applicant, considering that:
„(…)Excise exemption(...) is subject only to the part of electricity which is directly used in metallurgical processes(...) In the absence of measurement devices allowing precise determination of the amount of electricity to be exempted from excise duty(...) The applicant will be able to determine the amount of electricity exempted from excise duty by an estimate’
The interpretation given by the Director of the Tax Chamber in Katowice means that technical barriers preventing precise measurement of electricity used for processes exempt from excise duty do not necessarily mean the loss of privileges granted by the Act towards certain groups of entrepreneurs.