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President Klaus Iohannis signed on Thursday the decree for the promulgation of the Law on the establishment of social protection measures for vulnerable energy consumers, according to a press release from the Presidential Administration.
MPs passed the law earlier this month and set the provisions to apply from 1 November 2021.
The law provides for an increase in the average monthly income up to which heating aid is granted from 810 to 1,386 lei/person in the case of a family and from 1,445 to 2,053 lei in the case of a single person.
Amendments were also adopted on the reference amount (maximum level of heating aid for one month) depending on the heating system used. While the original text offered 250 lei per month for natural gas, 500 lei per month for electricity and 160 lei per month for solid or oil fuels, an adopted amendment increases the amounts to 375 lei, 650 lei and 320 lei respectively.
In addition, where the only source of energy used is electricity, the amount of the supplement is 70 lei per month, compared to the original proposal of 50 lei per month.
Between 1 and 5 million people will benefit
Between 1 and 5 million people will benefit from state support once the Vulnerable Consumer Law comes into force, Labour Minister Raluca Turcan told Digi24.
“The law will have two components. One, a subsidy on the bill, depending on the energy consumption that the consumer assumes, will be made differently, depending on the reference price for different types of energy – electricity, heat, gas or solid fuel. At the same time, there will be a supplement, which will be granted for the whole period during which the consumer accesses energy sources,” said the Labor Minister.
Vulnerable consumers must apply to the City Hall to obtain these facilities.
“For a pensioner with a minimum pension at the moment, if for the cold season, the support on the energy bill was around 100 lei, now, under the new law for vulnerable consumers, the support will be around 600 lei during the cold season plus the off-season, through the two types of support: subsidy and supplement,” said Raluca Turcan.
“Be careful, the subsidy is settled in the price of the bill (the bill is already reduced – editor’s note) and is applied with inverse proportionality, depending on the income level. Including the income level for which people have access to this support has increased from 800 lei to 810 lei per family member and from 1,042 to 1,450 for a single person, so the financial support and the range of people who can access this support from the state has also increased”, Raluca Turcan added.
Prime Minister Florin Cîțu said on Monday that if Parliament does not approve the law on vulnerable consumers within a week, he will ask the National Political Bureau of the PNL to take responsibility for this law, Agerpres reported.