Poland plans to freeze electricity prices at current levels for households that use less energy in 2023, the leader of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party said on Tuesday, as the government looks for ways to protect consumers from rising prices.Reuters

PiS has seen public support fall as energy prices have soared since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, pushing Polish inflation to its highest level in two decades, with prices rising 16.1% in August from a year earlier.

“We took measures so that electricity for every family, for a household that consumes up to 2,000 kWh, was at a fixed price and actually at the current price,” said Yaroslav Kaczynski during a meeting with voters.

“If someone reduces their consumption by at least 10% compared to last year, they will get an additional discount,” he added.

Kaczynski said the measure would keep prices stable for about two-thirds of Polish households, while other measures would be unveiled later this week by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

This measure is in addition to a number of measures taken by the government, such as tax incentives, fuel subsidies for households and other measures.

In August, Moravetskyi said that energy companies would have to cover some of the support costs through smaller increases in electricity tariffs.

The PiS leader also reported that the government is negotiating with state-controlled banks to raise interest rates for customers on both old and new deposits to 7-8%.

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