Energy Minister Sebastien Bourduya is undecided about the scheme for the maximum amount of compensation for natural gas and electricity. One day he said that there would be discussions with experts to reduce the number of beneficiaries of energy price caps. The next day, the minister returned with a statement asking Romanians not to be misled by voices trying to scare them, because “there is no question of abandoning the scheme of compensation limits for gas and electricity”.

More precisely, two days ago, Sebastien Bourduya told Digi24 that he raised the issue of changing the electricity compensation scheme in the coalition and that it is being discussed further with specialists, in the sense that only vulnerable consumers will remain beneficiaries of assistance. According to the minister, such a measure is necessary in conditions of great pressure on the state budget.

“We have to target support measures to vulnerable consumers. One is to have a monthly income of 1,000 euros, the other is to have 10,000 euros. It was decided to bring all involved parties together to find these options. (.. .) This is a great pressure on the state budget. This is not the problem of the Ministry of Energy, and it would be easy to wash our hands of it. This is the problem of the Ministry of Finance and the country,” Burduzha said Digi24.

The energy compensation scheme deepens the hole in the state budget

As if he had never made these statements, the next day the minister came back with a new statement, this time on his Facebook account, claiming that they are not giving up on anything. “In this context, I said that in winter, Romanians will not tremble either from the cold or from the fear of bills. Do not be deceived by the voices that try to scare you, dear Romanians. There is no question of waiving compensation – the gas and electricity restriction scheme. According to the current legislation, the scheme is valid until the spring of 2025. My goal is to pay a fair price for the bill and for Romanian companies to be as competitive as possible,” Burduja wrote on Facebook.

He also said that we are doing well with gas deposits, their capacity is 85%, which is 570 million cubic meters more than in the same period last year. Thus, we will survive a normal winter using only gas from Romanian fields and fields (100% independent), the minister also said, adding that for a severe winter there is also an option of gas that could be brought from Azerbaijan and Greece. But this is a rather uncertain option, given that the issue of their transportation still needs to be resolved.

We remind you that until now, bill to suppliers of electricity and natural gas, under the compensatory price ceiling scheme, exceeded 18.7 billion lei. These are funds that the entire population invests in, as they are paid from the state budget. This is in conditions where the hole in the budget is getting deeper and deeper, reaching about 45 billion lei, of which approx. 25 billion lei only in the expenditure part.

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More than 18.7 billion lei from the state budget goes to the accounts of energy and gas suppliers