Norway Is Considering Ending The Discounted Power Tariff For Bitcoin Miners

Norway finance minister, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, has urged that the government end a program that permits crypto data centers to pay a discounted cost for electricity.

A prospective policy shift for Bitcoin (BTC) miners was announced by the Norwegian government on October 6. It suggested that data centers operating in the nation be subject to the same power tax rates as other industries. The administration claimed that the reduced rate needed to be phased out because electricity demand was increasing in some areas.

“We are in a completely different situation in the power market now than when the reduced rate for data centers was introduced in 2016,” said the finance minister.

“In many places, the power supply is now under pressure, which causes prices to rise. At the same time, we are seeing an increase in cryptocurrency mining in Norway. We need this power for the community.”

The Red Party of Norway originally proposed a bill to outlaw crypto mining

The Norwegian Parliament rejected in May. At the time, Jaran Mellerud, an analyst at Arcane Research, told Cointelegraph that an outright ban was unlikely to occur but that Norway’s political parties would “certainly make one more try at boosting the electricity tax expressly for miners.”

According to data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, several BTC mining companies are presently based in Norway, where they contribute 0.74% of the world’s Bitcoin hash rate while utilizing only 100% sustainable energy sources. However, many citizens in the northern municipality of Sortland have voiced complaints about the noise pollution caused by miners, echoing worries from American legislators.

Following Vedum’s presentation of the national budget for Norway for 2023, the abolition of the miner electricity tax rate was proposed. The finance minister estimates that charging miners the same power tax rates as everyone else will generate more over $14 million in income.

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