Bulgaria’s Cabinet approves 450M leva electricity price relief package
Bulgaria’s caretaker Prime Minister Stefan Yanev said on October 21 that the Cabinet has approved a measure to reduce the electricity costs of non-household consumers, allocating 450 million leva, or about 230 million euro, to that purpose.
The government will cover part of the cost of electricity, namely 110 leva a MWh, for an estimated 630 000 non-household consumers. The aid will be released automatically through contracts signed by the Energy Ministry with electricity traders and distribution companies, Yanev said.
The measure will cover electricity bills for October and November 2021, with the funds coming from the state-owned Kozloduy nuclear power plant as an advance on annual dividend that it pays to the government.
Bulgaria’s caretaker Cabinet has considered a number of possible relief measures in recent weeks, which would have required a Budget revision, but that option is not available due to the absence of a sitting Parliament. Yanev said that with the funding from Kozloduy available, there was no need for a Budget revision.
Yanev said that the measure was “in unison with the European Commission communication on energy prices”, issued last week, but gave no further details on whether it required EC approval under state aid rules.
(Caretaker Prime Minister Stefan Yanev photo: government.bg)
Please support independent journalism by clicking on the orange button below. For as little as three euro a month or the equivalent in other currencies, you can support The Sofia Globe via patreon.com and get access to exclusive subscriber-only content:
