Measures to manage the energy crisis
The new measures to support the population and the economy against the rising electricity and natural gas prices will apply in Romania for one year, after April 1.
Mihai Pelin, 25.02.2022, 13:50
In Romania, gas and electricity bills have skyrocketed in recent months, following the market liberalization and significant global increases. Many bills have doubled and, in some cases, increased 4-5 times, although there is a law under which the prices of these utilities are offset and capped for the period November 1, 2021 – March 30, 2022. In this context, the Romanian government has decided on new measures to protect the population and businesses from the effects of rising energy and gas prices.
The measures will be applied for one year, guaranteeing the predictability and stability that citizens and the business environment need. Thus, from April 1, single rate tariffs will be applied for household and non-household consumers. As for the household consumers, those who will use up to 100 kilowatts of electricity per month will have a fixed rate of 0.68 lei/kwh. According to the authorities, there are currently over 4 million households that fall into this type of consumption. Instead, those who will consume between 100 and 300 kilowatts per month will pay a little more, namely 0.8 lei per kilowatt. Another 4 million households fall into this second category of consumption, the data show. For non-household customers – SMEs, public institutions, hospitals, schools, kindergartens, places of worship, town halls, universities, NGOs, as well as other such institutions – there will be a single rate tariff of 1 leu/kwh.
For natural gas, household customers who will have an annual consumption of up to 1,200 cubic meters will benefit from a tariff of 0.31 lei/kw. For non-household consumers, the cost of natural gas will be 0.37 lei/kw. In the case of large energy consumers, electricity bills will be reduced by 20%, and other aid schemes will be adopted for natural gas. The budgetary impact for electricity and natural gas will be about 14.5 billion lei (2.93 billion Euros) by the end of this year. All these tariffs could be adopted by the government next week.
On the other hand, the authorities also decided on a series of additional measures, without violating European rules, which would expose Romania to the infringement procedure. Thus, the rate of return on the supply cost will be of maximum 5% for suppliers and an additional tax is introduced for trading activity on the Romanian market, in order to discourage repeated transactions that may lead to higher prices. At the same time, the green certificates will be suspended until the end of 2022 and their validity will be extended with a period similar to that of suspension, a measure that will temporarily reduce the fiscal pressure on the budget, which will thus better support the measures to protect the population and the economy. According to the government, the implementation of the new measures after April 1 will allow the “sustainable” continuation of the states efforts to provide protection to the population and the business environment, which, for a year, will have a price stability while observing the free market rules. (LS)
