The prime minister made this statement during a cabinet meeting, noting that the authorities are working on a mechanism for providing this compensation and that new rules governing the selection of recipients will be announced soon. The Prime Minister explained that the criteria for selecting recipients will be adjusted so that support goes to the families who need it most. Vasile Tofan noted that, at present, 550 million lei have been set aside in the 2026 budget to pay energy compensation. According to him, there is no need to multiply this figure by the total number of months in the cold season, but neither should one assume that this will be the total amount of compensation. "We are currently working with external partners to secure additional funds so that we can offer the most generous compensation possible, on the one hand, to those families who need it most. At the same time, I have said that we must be very responsible with budget funds, because we simply cannot afford to take out loans to spend them indefinitely," said Vasile Tofan. The prime minister emphasized that the government's goal is to ensure that energy subsidies are provided to the most vulnerable families. He noted that in 2022–2023, virtually all families and households in Moldova received energy compensation. Out of 900,000 applications, 895,000 households received compensation. Last season, in 2025, approximately 621,000 households (nearly 75% of those who applied) received compensation. "Now the government's task is to ensure that those who need this assistance receive it as generously as possible," said the prime minister. He called for a review of the eligibility criteria so that high-income individuals would no longer receive heating compensation. "Since our criteria are based on income, we verify the income of every household, but we understand that we live in a country where tax evasion still exists. There are those who work informally, who own two cars and a large house, yet whose official income is very low, and these people are receiving compensation," the prime minister lamented. He said that the instructions given to the team at the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection are to focus more on indirect income criteria. "For example, if a person has an expensive house, registered cars, or a bank deposit. Many of these criteria were used in previous years, but now we've made them even stricter and broader so that the money goes to those who truly need it, and so we don't pay those who are more cunning than others and declare low incomes but still receive heating compensation," the prime minister stated. // 02.09.2026 — InfoMarket.