The BE today submitted a bill to revoke the possibility of consumers financing the costs of the social electricity tariff, defending it as a “minimum of social justice” for the electricity companies to bear them.
“What we’re proposing is that we go back to the previous model, when the BE automated the social energy tariff: that millionaire companies like EDP, the electricity companies, should pay the social energy tariff and not ordinary electricity consumers, or, as some voices on the right have already suggested, that the general state budget should pay for it. That’s completely wrong, it should be the electricity companies that pay,” defended the BE’s parliamentary leader, Fabian Figueiredo.
Speaking to the Lusa news agency, the Bloc MP pointed out that “the social energy tariff currently benefits 758,000 families” and defended that “this is possible thanks to the automation that the BE managed to introduce in 2016” in the State Budget, since before the bureaucratic process to be entitled to this tariff was “relatively difficult”.
The Bloquistas maintain that the previous PS government, “in a completely irresponsible manner, allowed the cost of the tariff to be passed on to consumers’ bills, in other words, for people to have an increased cost on their bills and pay the social energy tariff”.
“That’s completely wrong, what it’s doing in practice is increasing the profits of the electricity companies even more,” he warned, pointing out that EDP made profits of more than 900 million euros in 2023 and “still hasn’t paid the taxes due on the sale of the dams on the Douro”.
As well as not wanting consumers to bear the costs of this tariff, the BE also wants to prevent “other alternatives” from being found, such as funding from the state budget.
“It shouldn’t be public spending that bears the social energy tariff, nor should it be ordinary taxpayers,” he said, considering that bearing the costs of this tariff “is the minimum social justice required of these companies”.
Fabian Figueiredo said he hoped there would be a parliamentary majority to approve this bill, considering it “of elementary justice”.
The Energy Services Regulatory Authority (ERSE) estimates a total funding requirement of 136.5 million euros for the social electricity tariff in 2024, of which around a third (44.4 million euros) will be borne by a large number of electricity generating centers and the remaining two thirds (92.1 million) by 36 suppliers.
To this amount must be added 14.8 million euros (5.3 to electro-producers and 9.5 to retailers), for the period from November 18 to December 31, 2023, since the model is retroactive to the approval of the amendment by the previous government.
According to directives published on Friday night by ERSE regarding the new model for distributing the financing of the social electricity tariff, which take effect on April 1, suppliers are free, if they so wish, to pass on the costs to the end consumer.
In its report on the public consultation of the new model, ERSE’s tariff council estimated that the impact on end consumers could increase bills by 1.13% in the free market and 0.93% in the regulated market.
Under the previous model, the costs of the social electricity tariff were charged to the largest producers, but last year the European Commission decided to uphold EDP’s complaints, which led to the costs being shared out among a wider range of companies.
The social electricity tariff consists of a 33.8% discount on regulated market prices for families on lower incomes.
