Specific support mechanisms have been adopted for businesses from 1 October onward to help reduce the negative influence of growing prices of energy resources on the national economy, according to law amendments passed by the Saeima on 30 August.
Amendments to the Law on Measures to Reduce Emergency Rise of Energy Prices will apply to end users that are legal persons and who are not applied with system tariffs intended for households.
It is planned to apply a reduced energy supply service fee for enterprises.
The fee for system services account for 10% of costs in electricity bills of legal persons, as mentioned in the annotation of the legislative draft.
The system service fee is composed of the fixed and variable fee.
Transmission and distribution system operators’ lost income will be compensated from the state budget.
The law states that support measures are to remain in place between 1 October 2022 and 30 April 2023.
Support will not be provided to state and municipal institutions, as well as legal persons under sanctions.
The law also provides for giving electricity end users with reduced mandatory procurement component (MPC) portion between 1 September and 31 December.
The Cabinet of Ministers has one month to develop emergency energy resource price rise reduction measures for households that use propane gas as heating for their home.
This support is intended to be paid for the period between 1 May 2022 and 30 April 2023.
Amendments will come to force on the next day following promulgation.
To promote market stabilisation in regards to energy resource price increase and preserve active enterprises’ competitiveness under the current geopolitical situation, a new grant option has been introduced for all types of energy-intensive enterprises in the manufacturing industry, as well as legislative changes to cushion the consequences caused by sanctions imposed against Russia for invading Ukraine.
Enterprises whose electricity costs compose at least 10% of their total costs and whose electricity consumption exceeds 500 MWh a year will be eligible for this support, authors of the legislative draft explain.