The Moldovan government will partially compensate residential consumers for the difference in tariffs for the first 150 cubic meters of gas and the first gigacalorie of heat.
This is provided for by the draft law on compensation of expenses for gas and heat energy consumption during the cold season, which the parliament adopted on Thursday in the first reading. As noted by its author, the chairman of the parliamentary commission on social protection, health and family Dan Perciun, the document was developed with the aim of supporting household consumers in the cold season (November 2021 - March 2022). It is envisaged that the government will compensate for the difference in gas consumption tariffs as follows: for the first 50 cubic meters of gas will be compensated for 67% of the difference between the price in the calculated month and October 2021, and for the next 100 cubic meters - 50% of this difference. At the same time, compensation for heat energy will amount to 67% of the amount of the difference between the price in the calculated month and the previous price in October 2021 for the first gigacalorie consumed per family. As Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita noted earlier, for the first 50 cubic meters of gas, consumers will pay 6.8 lei per cubic meter of gas, and for volumes from 50 to 150 cubic meters - 7.9 lei per cubic meter, and the difference is compensated for from the state budget. Thus, for the first 50 cubic meters the government will compensate 4.3 lei from the gas tariff, and from 50 to 150 cubic meters - 3.2 lei from the tariff for 1 cu. m of gas. When the first gigacalorie is consumed, citizens are compensated 2/3 of the increased cost. The maximum amount of compensation for heating will be 450 lei per month. The compensation mechanism will look like this: the money will be transferred to the current account of natural gas and heat energy suppliers, who will monthly calculate the amount of compensation for the difference after the increase in gas and heat consumption tariffs for each household consumer. Invoices issued to residential consumers will separately indicate the total amount for services rendered, the amount of the difference after the increase in tariffs for gas and heat consumption, allocated from the state budget, and the amount payable by each of the residential consumers after recalculation. It is planned that 746 thousand household consumers will receive compensations for gas, and 222 thousand consumers connected to the central heating system in Chisinau and Balti for heat. In general, over 1 billion lei will be required to pay compensation in the cold period of 2021-2022. The funds required to compensate for the difference in prices within 5 months will amount to approximately 771 million lei for the consumption of natural gas and about 340 million lei for the consumption of thermal energy. Herewith, 210 million lei have already been provided for in the course of adjusting the state budget for 2021, and 900 million lei will be included in the draft Law on the State Budget for 2022. As a reminder, the tariff for natural gas for residential consumers in October 2021 was 4.64 lei per cubic meter including VAT, and from November 1 the new tariff is 11.08 lei. // 18.11.2021 — InfoMarket
