The authorities are preparing for a new blow on the part of the higher bills now that new electric power rates are to be applied as from April 1. Minister of Labor and Social Protection Marcel Spatari said the Government is working on a mechanism for covering a part of the electricity costs of the people on low incomes, similar to that applied in the case of natural gas and heating, IPN reports.

Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spînu recently announced that the Kuchurgan Power Plant refuses to supply electricity at the old purchase price. Marcel Spatari said the families with low budgets will be helped to pay the power bills so as to ease the burden for them.

“We enjoy the UNDP’s support in this regard. There are experts who work on this mechanism. We must also work with the suppliers. We want the support to be indicated directly in the bill, but are considering how feasible this is as the suppliers will need to implement technical solutions. Certainly, we do not speak about a generalized compensation program, for all consumers, as in the case of natural gas. It will be a targeted mechanism. This means there will be eligibility criteria and a mechanism for registering and checking these households. Priority will be given to the citizens who will be affected the most by the lectricity prices,” Marcel Spatari stated in the talk show “Rezoomat” on RliveTV.

Under the law, March is the last month for which the citizens will get subsidies for the consumed natural gas. According to the minister, many state institutions already used their 2022 budgets for paying the bills. New funds will be allocated from the state budget so as to ensure the functionality of these institutions. The Ministry of Finance is drafting a relevant bill to amend the state budget.

“The budget will also be amended to cover the costs associated with the payment of pensions as these will rise more than it was initially projected. The April indexation of pensions will cost the budget 1.8 billion lei. This is much more than we initially planned. Besides the indexation of pensions that is aimed at maintaining the purchasing power, a lump-sum increase will be applied, depending on the economic growth,” said Marcel Spatari.

In accordance with the bill drafted by the Government, the pensions will be indexed by 13.94% as from April 1. The indexation coefficient was set depending on the rate of inflation last yearend.