Liberal Energy Minister Virgil Popescu said on Wednesday that ANRE’s estimate of the budget impact of energy and gas price caps for April-December this year based on Decree 27/2022 should be reduced from 40 billion lei to 16 billion lei. On the other hand, PSD Finance Minister Adrian Cachiu recently stated that the initial estimate of the impact on the budget was 9 billion lei and that we are moving towards this amount.

• “I saw at one point an estimate given by sources from ANRE of 40 billion lei, and again, according to sources, we would ask for 31 billion. I don’t say publicly what happens inside the Coalition.” This was announced on Wednesday by the Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescuasked what the costs of capping energy and gas prices would be this year.

At the insistence of journalists to explain what expenses will come from the budget, speaking about the amounts received to correct the budget, the Minister of Energy said that “ANRE’s estimate of the impact on the budget was reduced from this 40 billion lei to 20 billion, and later to 16 billion lei.”

• “It was an ANRE estimate (not for the budget impact for this year of the capping scheme). The evaluation is done by ANRE, which aggregates all the data together with the Ministry of Finance, because that is where all the data is collected,” Popescu said.

Asked if the money would be in the budget, the energy minister said: “I can tell you that all the political leaders have said that whatever needs to be paid will be paid.”

Resolution 27/2022, which establishes the compensation scheme for energy carriers and natural gas for the period April 2022 – March 2023, will be amended by the Government, most likely in September-October this year.

The price cap will remain after March 31, 2023, but Now the coalition is considering the possibility of excessive taxation of the entire energy chain.

Minister of Finance Adrian Cachiu: This decree initially had an impact of nine billion lei, and that is what we are going to

It should be noted that when the budget adjustment was adopted, Finance Minister Adrian Cachiu stated that the initial estimate of the budgetary impact of Decree 27/2022 was 9 billion lei.

• “Unfortunately, we find ourselves in such a situation when all kinds of estimates appear based on sources that no longer have anything to do with the order and the initial estimate, because there were all kinds of discussions that we conducted in the public space.
• This resolution initially had an impact on nine billion lei and, if we sit down to count the five placed now, with what comes to the second correction, that is where we are going. Nine billion lei compared to the sums that we have seen and which, in fact, cause a whole emotion for the citizens and the economy, but also for those who look from the outside, no one understands anymore, sir, what this sum is.
• Unfortunately, I think that ANRE should play a bigger role… because that’s where the bills are presented.” the finance minister said last week, approving the budget adjustment.

Minister Cachiu said that the Ministry of Energy has requested the correction of 2.5 billion lei in liability credits.

“There were a number of errors in the information received from NARE; I checked these results – they are 2.5 billion. (..) The commitment credits requested by the Ministry of Energy and initially pending agreement amounted to 2.5 billion lei, so I allocated 2.5 billion lei. But the appropriations for energy are not only 2.5 billion, it is about 5 billion lei, because there are also amounts allocated to the Ministry of Labor. As you know, the Ministry of Labor pays the bills for household consumers, the Ministry of Energy pays the bills for the economy,” Kachiu said at the time.