AN ANNUAL shortfall in the state budget caused by tax incentives for biofuels is expected to amount to between Sk1.7 billion and Sk1.9 billion (€56.43 million to €63.07 million) each year from 2009 until 2011, the SITA newswire reported, citing an estimate by the Financial Policy Institute of the Finance Ministry on October 22.
Though a cabinet regulation states that, beginning in 2010, the share of biofuels in petrol and diesel has to make up 5.75 percent, the institute does not regard the target as realistic given current technical capabilities. The current share of biofuels is 2 percent.
The Institute stressed that companies will thus lack any motivation after 2010 to continue increasing the volume of biofuels since it will be impossible for them to observe the cabinet regulation and each further increase in the share of biofuels causes their costs to go up.
