Electricity suppliers are preparing to reflect a discount in the form of a so-called savings tariff on households’ energy bills from October. In addition, if the government decides to increase the contribution, as announced by Industry and Trade Minister Jozef Síkela (for STAN), suppliers are ready to respond in time.
According to government regulation, people with the most common tariffs will receive CZK 3,500 from October to December, and people who use electricity for heating will receive CZK 2,000.
Another relief will be the forgiveness of the payment for renewable sources, which is CZK 599 for each megawatt-hour consumed. Each household should save around CZK 4,000 on average this year. The support will continue next year.
According to Síkela, households should save between CZK 11,000 and CZK 18,000 depending on their consumption between October this year and September next year.
Síkela also announced that he wants to increase aid to poorer households beyond that. Still, he did not elaborate further, saying that he would only discuss this with Labour and Finance Ministers Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL) and Zbyněk Stanjura (ODS).
The STAN movement, which Sikel represents in the government, has said the support could be increased from CZK 4 000 to CZK 10 000 this year. It is not clear who this would affect and to what extent.
Relief up to the amount of the advance
According to Vojtěch Srnka, spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the government regulation on the savings tariff has already come into force. It has already been published in the Collection of Laws. However, Hanzelka, PRE spokesman, said that if the amount of the savings tariff is increased, new government regulation would probably be necessary.
ČEZ will take the tariff discount in the October advance payment in full wherever possible. “We will account for the allowance in the first advance. If the contribution is higher than the advance itself, we will reduce the next advance or advances by the remaining amount,” Gazdík, spokesman for ČEZ, explained.