Budget Day leak: Gov't reserves millions for tech industry, compensation for CO2 tax
In the national budget for 2026, the caretaker Cabinet has reserved €430 million extra to invest in the tech industry, sources who saw the Budget Day documents told NOS. Other sources told the Telegraaf that the government also reserved some €650 million to compensate industrial companies for the CO2 tax.
According to NOS’s sources, the government considers it strategically important to invest in companies involved in high-tech. The government wants to maintain the Nehterlands leading role in this field.
€230 million will go to the semiconductor industry, which produces computer chips. The money will go to a European fund called Important Project for Common European Interest (IPCEI) and will then flow back to projects in the Netherlands, according to the agreement.
Another €200 will be allocated to supporting new companies in the tech industry. This money is intended to help companies grow from the startup to the scale-up phase. Here too, the money will go to a European fund, the European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI), and then flow back to Dutch projects.
The €430 million will come from the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ budget, mostly from the National Growth Fund, which hasn’t spent all its money yet, NOS’s sources said. The fund launched in 2020 with €20 billion, intended to invest in sustainable corporate initiatives.
The Telegraaf’s sources said that the caretaker Cabinet has found a way to eliminate the CO2 tax on large companies without actually scrapping the measures. This tax is imposed on Dutch industry on top of European levies. The business community says it creates an uneven playing field for Dutch companies in Europe.
On Budget Day, the government will announce a total of €650 million in support to reduce large companies’ electricity costs. In practice, this will compensate them for the CO2 tax they have to pay.
The government can’t scrap the tax because it could mean a €1.2 billion penalty from the European Union, VVD Minister Sophie Hermans (Climate and Green Growth) previously told parliament. The tax was one of the measures in the “Recovery and Resilience Plan” the Nehterlands drew up to qualify for billions of euros in European coronavirus aid. Deviating from the plan will have financial consequences.
On Budget Day, held on the third Tuesday in September, the government reveals its plans for the next year. The Schoof I Cabinet is governing in a caretaker capacity, which generally means that it can’t make any far-reaching decisions. But the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, did give this government leeway to keep dealing with the current issues.
