The Norwegian government has proposed removing the reduced electricity tax that Bitcoin miners enjoy.
The country’s finance minister stated that they are in a very different period than 2016, when the discount application was first introduced.
Norwegian Government Plans to Abolish Low Tax Practice
Norwegian Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum recommended that the government’s plan to allow crypto data centers to pay lower electricity taxes should be scrapped.
The recommendation stated that data centers operating in the country should be subject to similar tax rates as other industries. This reveals that there will be a policy change for Bitcoin miners in the country. According to the government, the reduced rates should be phased out as electricity demand increases in certain regions.
The minister used the following statements:
“We are currently in a completely different situation in the energy market than when the discount rate for data centers was introduced in 2016.
In many places the energy supply is currently under pressure, which is causing prices to rise. We are also seeing an increase in crypto mining in Norway. We need this power, society.”
In May, the Norwegian Parliament rejected a proposal to ban crypto mining, which was first introduced by the Red Party. Jaran Mellerud, an analyst at Arcane Research, noted at that time that political parties in the country would attempt to raise energy taxes for their miners.
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