"Failure to cut system charges for power above 16.5 kw affects especially many SMEs and across the board. My fear is that the government is unclear about the cross-section of Italian companies because this exclusion impacts on everyone without any particular distinction and seems to disregard the very definition of industry, including small and medium-sized ones'. Thus Giovanni Baroni, vice-president of Confindustria and president of Small Industry, expressed in an interview with Sole24Ore disappointment at the government's decision in the Budget Bill to exclude companies from the zeroing of system charges on electricity and gas bills for the first quarter of 2023.

"Today," Baroni explained, "I am not a professional companies have two tools to cope with high energy prices: tax credits that go on VAT numbers, although they do not include the whole of the the zeroing of system charges which, unlike the first instrument, characterised by a particularly complex utilisation, represents a horizontal measure benefiting all companies, while the credits, which in any case constituted an important step and which we appreciated, in grounding not only the complexity of the process, but also problems of fiscal capacity and utilisation capacity. And this is especially true for SMEs, which in fact often need a consultant to activate the instrument, with a consequent availability of resources, which not all companies have'.

For Baroni, the stop to the cut in parafiscal items for power above 16.5 kw effectively excludes companies from benefiting from the measure: "Setting the bar at 16.5 kilowattswhich is equivalent to the consumption of five families,' Baroni clarified. means including only the small craftsman in the cut, while keeping out all medium and high voltages that are mainly used by the industrial sector".

'This government presented itself with the promise of wanting to be attentive to the business world,' said Baroni, 'but this turnaround is a step backwards not only in absolute termsgiven the impact it will have on our budgets, but it is also in total contrast to the starting premise. Especially if we put it side by side with other choices, on the investment front, such as the non-renewal of tax credits for research and development and the downward adjustments for the Transition 4.0 package. As an entrepreneur, therefore, I am concerned and wonder what the next step will be at this point. We, as always, evaluate the executive on measures, so we cannot but be puzzled by these latest choices".

"We are going from one crisis to another: after the pandemic, today we are caught in the grip of high energy prices, which, together with the difficulty of finding and high prices of raw materials and the criticality caused by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, is putting us under severe strain. For companies, the best antidote to come out of these phases is to invest and grow by creating a virtuous mechanism", emphasised the president of Small Industry. "If the government, however, does not support those who choose not to distribute profits but to reinvest them to drive development, it will be difficult to leave this crisis behind as well".