Moldova will create an Energy Vulnerability Reduction Fund, which in 2022 will amount to 870 million lei.
This is provided for by amendments to the law on the state budget for 2022, approved by the government at a meeting on Wednesday. As InfoMarket agency reported earlier, the parliament had previously adopted a law on the creation of an Energy Vulnerability Reduction Fund. The fund will be created at the initiative of the government in the context of the current energy crisis, the consequences of which are exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, and will be aimed at preventing and combating the energy vulnerability of the population and improving energy efficiency. According to the law, low-income consumers will receive monthly compensation for payment of bills for heat energy in the centralized system, for the consumption of electricity and natural gas. It is also proposed to provide subsidies to improve the efficiency of energy consumption, replace obsolete household appliances with modern, more energy efficient ones. An information system “Energy Vulnerability” will be created to collect information on the energy vulnerability parameters of residential consumers and manage the mechanism for providing subsidies. In order to receive monthly compensations, household energy users will register in the Energy Vulnerability Register, an electronic system administered by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, which will accumulate the data necessary to classify consumers into one of the categories of vulnerable energy consumption. The classification of vulnerable consumer categories is based on a number of parameters to be approved by the government: income, number of family members, share of energy expenditure in household consumption, type of heating system used, etc. Funding sources for the Fund will be the state budget, European funds, and other external sources. Its size will be approved by the annual law on the state budget. Earlier it was reported that in 2023, according to preliminary calculations, about 1 billion lei will be required to finance the Energy Vulnerability Reduction Fund, some external donors have already expressed their readiness to provide funding. The Law on the Energy Vulnerability Reduction Fund will come into force on September 1, 2022.// 24.08.2022 — InfoMarket.
