The exact conditions of the electricity support will be clarified this week. It is still open, among other things, how much of the electricity bill the state will pay.
2.1. 19:51
The ruling parties is scheduled to decide on the final terms of the electricity subsidy on Wednesday.
So far, it is open, among other things, how much of the electricity bill the state pays, and what happens to immigrants and others whose allowances are difficult to calculate automatically.
On Wednesday, the special assistants of the ministers who negotiated the electricity subsidy will meet to deal with the draft law on the electricity subsidy, which the officials have prepared in a hurry. If there is still a dispute between the parties about the support, possibly the ministers will also have to negotiate.
Read more: The board decided on electricity subsidies: a deductible of 100 euros and a subsidy ceiling of 700 euros per month
Government your line on many conditions of electricity support as early as December 22.
According to the government’s decision proposal, support is paid for electricity bills for four months. The calculation basis is the actual consumption of November–December.
The deductible is one hundred euros per month, and the subsidy ceiling is 700 euros per month. The support will be paid through the electricity companies in March at the earliest. The electricity company deducts the subsidy directly from the electricity bills.
The government decided that the subsidy can cost the state around 400 million euros.
Read more: Can I also get electricity support for heating the cabin? This is all you need to know about support
Yet it is not known what part of the electricity bill the state will pay at most. In December’s preliminary calculations, the share of state support varied between 50 and 80 percent.
According to HS’s two sources, according to detailed calculations, the subsidy percentage is falling lower than originally thought. According to one source, the percentage may fall below 50 percent, so that the agreed allocation of around 400 million euros is enough.
Industrial advisor of the Ministry of Labor and the Economy (TEM). Petteri Kuuva and Inspector General Tatu Pahkala do not confirm HS’s preliminary data. They emphasize that the calculations are still in progress.
“I don’t take a position on the percentage yet. The average price of electricity for December was only found out a day ago,” says Kuuva.
“The bill is supposed to be put to the express opinion round on Monday. Then the percentage is clear. There are still many details that need to be decided,” says Kuuva.
The percentage may change even after the political processing, but it may mean that the support will rise higher than was thought.
Dry emphasizes that the invoicing systems of electricity companies do not lend themselves to subtle support decisions in such a fast preparation schedule.
The invoicing of electricity companies is mostly outsourced, and the companies have a limited number of people to program the invoicing in accordance with the future subsidy law.
In practice, subsidies must be automatically taken into account in invoices quite roughly. In this case, many may not receive support, because the companies do not have the staff to change hundreds of thousands of invoices by hand.
Pahkala says that difficulties arise, for example, when the electricity company’s customer has moved or if the person’s electricity contract has changed between November and December.
The electricity bill of tens of thousands of customers changes every month. According to preliminary information, there were 90,000 contract changers in December.
According to Pahkala, it is difficult to give the “right” support from an organizational point of view, especially for those who have moved during the support months.
“It is impossible to take into account the change in the electricity bill if there is no history of the actual consumption. If you move at the turn of the year, for example, and your consumption increases or decreases significantly from before, the support will still come according to your November-December consumption,” says Pahkala.
“Any number of requirements can easily be put into the legislation, but if you want to distribute subsidies quickly, not all changes can be taken into account in practice.”
Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä in the parliament cafe in Helsinki on December 15.
Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä (center) says he has not heard the latest calculations on the subsidy percentage.
“I have given civil servants peace of mind,” says Lintilä.
According to him, the data protection commissioner made it clear from the beginning that electricity bill information and people’s income and other information cannot be combined if subsidies are distributed through electricity companies. Because of this, it is difficult to target subsidies precisely to those who need them, says Lintilä.
“People’s income information cannot be given to electricity companies. If the state had distributed the support, it would have practically meant the establishment of a new agency. It wouldn’t have had time for this emergency,” says Lintilä.
Job- and according to the Ministry of Economy’s press release from December, the one-time electricity bill subsidy is paid for a period of four months, i.e. in practice for electricity bills from November to February. However, the support amount is only calculated based on November–December invoices.
The actual size of the electricity bills for January and February therefore does not affect the final amount of the subsidy in any way.
Even those whose electricity bill has not increased at all can benefit from the support. Those with high incomes will also receive support.
The government also supports citizens suffering from electricity bills with tax deductions and support applied for from Kela.
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