By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

A heating allowance for those who choose to heat with electricity this year is expected to be announced, barring unforeseen circumstances, next week by the Ministry of Energy. It will not be horizontal but will follow the criteria of the subsidy for heating oil and will apply from January when the current horizontal electricity subsidies will no longer exist.

Thus, the amount of the allowance will range from 100-800 and the beneficiaries will be:

-Singles with an income of up to €16,000

-Married couples with income up to €24,000

-+5,000 for each child

-Real estate up to €200,000 for the unmarried and €300,000 for the married.

It is estimated that the beneficiaries will be approximately 1-1.5 million who will receive the allowance on the condition that they will not receive heating oil allowance. The fund is in the range of €150-200m and will not burden the state budget, but the resources will come from the Green Transition Fund, which also finances subsidies on electricity bills.

The inclusion of those who use natural gas as a means of heating is also under consideration.

At the same time, the government makes it clear that if electricity prices skyrocket like last year to unimaginable levels, it is ready to intervene.

Until the end of the year, we will follow the well-known model of horizontal subsidies for electricity bills, which will be increased by 67% for November, as the Ministry of Energy announced an increase from 15 cents to 25 cents/Kwh.

The subsidy applies to consumptions up to 500Mwh/month, a category to which 90% of Greek households belong. The same support applies to households with higher consumption if they reduce their average daily consumption by 15% compared to the corresponding last year.

The same support will be given to the farmers regardless of regardless of supply power and voltage level.

For households included in the Social Household Tariff the subsidy increases to €0.60/Kwh which covers the entire increased cost.

The total of subsidies for November amounts to €32 million.

The increase in subsidies becomes particularly important in the wake of the publication of data showing that fees to electricity providers amount to €2.1 billion. Of these, €1.6 billion are old customer debts with increased chances of never being repaid.
€1.5 billion actually come from households and small businesses that either have a real inability to pay or simply like to indulge in the sport of “energy tourism”. The market is rightly concerned that a new generation of debt will be piled up with the end of subsidies from the New Year.

However, in the announcements of the Ministry of Energy next week, in addition to the electricity allowance, provisions will be included both for those included in the Social Household Tariff and for those who are considered to be plagued by energy poverty, which is a much wider category of citizens than the most financially weak.