The Romanian Government decided to cap the electricity and natural gas prices for households and small enterprises for another year after the current support scheme expires at the end of March.
According to Prime Minister Niculae Ciuca, the impact on the state budget, including the support schemes for large companies, is estimated at some 2.9 billion euros, or just over 1 % of GDP, for the three quarters until the end of 2022.
In principle, at least part of the impact should be offset by the revenues generated by the supplementary taxes levied from electricity generation companies (not including coal-fired thermal power plants) that sell their output at a price above a certain threshold (90 euros/MWh under the scheme that expires at the end of March).
The structure of maximum prices set by the Government for the electricity delivered to households and small enterprises is similar to those in force until the end of March: 0.14 euros/ kWh of electricity for households with consumptions under 100 kWh per month), 0.16 euros/kWh for those using 100-300 kWh per month and most likely 0.2 euros/kWh for those above the limit.
Large public users such as schools and hospitals will pay 0.2 euros/kWh at most, while the rest of non-residential users will be supported under a special scheme that reduces their costs by some 20 %.
For natural gas, households with monthly consumption of up to 1,200 cubic meters will pay 0.063 euros/kWh.
