AMAZON Pays For ONLY 3% Of The Electricity They Use In Sweden!!
The Swedish government had an intense communication with Jeffrey Preston, or "Jeff" Bezos Amazon for a long time. It probably started out in late 2016, and Jeff managed to score a good deal.. A very good deal.
In 2017, three of the government's heaviest ministers wrote a letter to Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos, pleading for his company to establish itself deeper in Sweden.
The exchange went so far that Amazon even got to design Minister Mikael Damberg's own quotes before an advertising campaign. On January 1, 2017, the electricity tax was reduced by 97 percent for Facebook, Google and Amazon.
Previously classified government documents show that Amazon and representatives of Stefan Löfven's government met several times in the spring of 2017. Among the items on the agenda was that Amazon was the subject of a review by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority.
Through lobbying director Carsten Kestermann, Amazon expressed its dissatisfaction with the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority's actions and tried to get the government to intervene. In the end, the Swedish civil servants were forced to declare that 'Finansinspektionen' (as it's called in Swdeden) is a government-independent authority.
During the same period, Amazon managed to push through several changes in quotes from the then Minister of Trade and Industry Mikael Damberg (S) which was to be published in a joint mailing before the launch of the IT giant's server halls in Sweden.
Some of these Data Centers or Server halls draws up to 500 megawatts.
That is almost twice as much electricity that Uppsala (population of 225,164 people) consumes.
A normal house in Sweden consumes an average of about 15 - 20 MWh / year.. Energy tax on electricity in 2020 is 35.3 öre / kWh (~0.04 USD / kWh), for everyone except for these giants, such as Amazon.
500000 kWh = 500 MWh.
20 mWh = 20000 kWh.
- You do the math..
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That is how it works. In the US, municipalities and states fall all over themselves to give decade long tax breaks and incentives to build a warehouse, headquarters, or plant in a particular area.
When you look at the billions invested by these governments in return for the "jobs created" they simply would be better off just giving the money to the workers. They would come out ahead since the jobs goals are often missed.
Another interesting Amazon (and other major corporations) is how they pay very little-to no taxes on corporate profits. This saves them billions which ends up favoring the shareholders.
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What you're saying is all correct. But the most problematic aspect of this story is that it sounds like the Swedish government gave a tax break to a single corporation.
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Oh I thought there were others.
I took this to mean that Facebook and Google also shared in the giveaway.
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Yeah, it goes for all three of them. It's insane actually, but no one seems to bother with this at all.
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A lot of insane stuff in the US that people are bothered about.
It is sad but that is why corruption can flourish and grow. People simply do not pay attention.
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Oh yes, you're correct. I wonder if what other companies there were? What would happen if a company that wasn't any of the three tried to sue the government?
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That would be an interesting scenario. Not sure how it would play out over there.
In the US, governments are free to give any incentives, which they tie to jobs. If a company comes into the arena with the same type of job creation capability, I am sure the politicians would be tripping over themselves.
Few can match an Amazon in that area which is why they stand out so much with each project they do.
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