ZURICH (Reuters) – A Swiss court has ruled that natural gas imported to power turbines for compressing gas in the transit pipeline is not subject to the national carbon tax designed to curb the use of fossil fuels and protect the environment.
The Federal Administrative Court verdict released on Tuesday upheld an appeal by an unidentified company against the national customs agency, which insisted on imposing the tax that is collected on fuel used to produce heat, generate light, power thermal plants or fuel combined heat-and-power plants.
Fossil energy sources used in combustion engines to generate power are exempt.
The case in question centred on whether the plant getting the gas should be considered a combined-cycle plant that produced both power and heat. The court ruled it was not.
The verdict is subject to appeal.
(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Jan Harvey)
