Romanians’ electricity bills to drop 8 pct following VAT and distribution cost cuts

The VAT cut that came into force at the beginning of the year, along with lowered distribution costs, should bring electricity bills down by 8 percent this year, according to Energy Minister Victor Georgescu, quoted by Agerpres.

The Value Added Tax was reduced from 24 to 20 percent starting January 2016. At the same time, the National Authority for Energy Regulation (ANRE) has reduced the distribution costs by some 12 percent.

As these costs hold a 40 percent share of the final energy prices, the drop in costs for receivers would reach 5.5 percent. However, green certificate costs have gone up form RON 35 per MWh to RON 43 per MWh, taking the final reduction in electricity bills to 3.5 percent.

The green certificate cost has gone up as some of the large energy consumers (such as Alro Slatina, Arcelor Mittal Galati, Lafarge, Carpat Cement, Saint-Gobain, Azomures) have been exempted from paying a share in their due green certificates, payment which fell to the final consumers.

In 2015 energy costs amounted to a median of RON 155 per MWh, a slight increase (below 1 percent) over the previous year.

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Natalia Martian