The Romanian suppliers complain that the Government has not disbursed them the subsidies supposed to cover the losses generated by the capping the prices for end consumers.
The costs of the “cap and subsidy” support scheme introduced by the Government last November have been covered so far by the suppliers themselves.
Head of the Romanian Electricity Suppliers Association (AFEER) Laurentiu Urluescu said that it is neither the role nor the expertise of energy suppliers to do social protection. This is the role of the state.
The suppliers also complained that if they do not pay the VAT and excise duties to the state budget on time, the state charges them fines and interest. It is almost four months since the introduction of the support measure and the suppliers have not received any money from the state yet.
The Minister of Labor Marius Budai, said that on Monday the first nine payments were made to the suppliers who capped and compensated the prices for electricity and natural gas.
Last October, the Romanian Government adopted an emergency ordinance on regulating the budgetary measures and establishing the compensation scheme for electricity and natural gas consumption for the 2021-2022 winter season.
About 13 million Romanian citizens will benefit from the compensation of electricity bills, so that they do not feel the increase in prices. Residential customers whose total electricity consumption is between 150 kWh and 1,000 kWh will benefit from a fixed amount compensation of 0.042 euros/kWh related to this electricity consumption. The reference price taken into account for active energy is 0.14 euros/kWh and includes regulated tariffs and VAT.
Similar solutions are in place for natural gas consumers. The compensation granted by the state will be 25 % of the value of the gas consumption bill, if the total consumption related to it is between 80 and 960 cubic meters.
The measures will be applied between 1 November 2021 and 31 March 2022. The support scheme was later revised and the compensations for February and March were increased.
