Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has published a notice regarding the renewable energy premium in the Government Gazette.

The purpose of the notice is to facilitate Section 6(2) of the Carbon Tax Act, which makes provision for taxpayers conducting electricity generation activities to offset the costs of buying additional renewable electricity against their carbon tax liability for the first phase of the carbon tax, until December 2022.

The notice was published on December 15, 2021.

In a statement issued by the National Treasury on January 21, it was highlighted that a notice setting out the renewable energy premium rates per kilowatt hour for eligible renewable energy technologies for the 2019 tax period was gazetted in June 2020.

“Taxpayers, however, requested clarity on the renewable energy premium rates to be used to determine the tax deduction for the 2020 tax period, as the applicable renewable energy premium rates were limited to the 2019 tax period,” the National Treasury stated.

To address the concerns raised by taxpayers, a draft renewable energy premium notice was published for public comment in August 2021, proposing changes to the notice published in June 2020.

Moreover, the draft notice sought to clarify that the renewable energy premium rates were applicable for the 2020 tax period.

“This clarification was welcomed by taxpayers and no additional comments were received from stakeholders on the draft notice,” the National Treasury noted.

The newly gazetted renewable energy premium notice gives effect to the removal of the limitation of the tax period for which the rates would be applicable.

“Any future adjustments of the renewable energy premium will be made by way of an announcement in the Budget,” the statement concluded.