Starting on Friday, gas and electricity will be significantly more expensive in our neighborhood: Up to 16%

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Gas and electricity prices in Croatia will increase starting tomorrow, and with government measures to mitigate that growth, the average household in the public gas supply system will be paying 16 percent more, while electricity will go up 9.6 percent.

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In the first half of March, the government adopted a package of measures to mitigate the impact of rising energy prices affecting households worth 4.8 billion kunas (about 633 million euros), recalls Hina.

It is added that these measures, among other things, envisage changes to the Law on VAT, subsidizing gas prices for households and small businesses, as well as one-time assistance to pensioners and assistance to the socially endangered categories.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic then announced that, without those measures, the prices of electricity would increase by 23 percent, and of gas by 79 percent. Representatives of Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP), the power company, have stated in recent press releases that the average price increase for single-tariff meters will be around 8.5%, and for two-tariff ones - around 11%.

Most households in Croatia, two million customers in that category, are still in the system of public energy supply services, according to HEP. The average annual consumption of customers who have two-tariff meters installed was 3,200 kWh in 2021, and according to HEP, their bill will increase from about 250 to about 280 kunas per month - from 33 to 37 euros.

Electricity supply services on the Croatian market are also provided by the Slovenian Gen.I, as well as E.ON Croatia, owned by a German company of the same name. Their customers are also expected to see price hikes. As for gas, the Croatian Energy Regulatory Agency (Hera) announced that the cost of one of the three components for calculating the final price of gas for public supply increased by as much as 141 percent - from 0.1422 kunas per kilowatt-hour (kWh) by March 31, 2022 to 0.3425 per kWh for the period from April 1, 2022 until March 31, 2023.

Considering this increase in the cost of gas supply, the average final price of gas for households would increase to 0.4610 kunas per kWh (excluding VAT) from April 1, or 77 percent, it is stated. However, the government's package of measures, which includes reducing the VAT rate on gas from 25 to five percent, as well as the decision to subsidize the price of gas with 10 lipas (one tenth of the Croatian currency kuna) per kilowatt-hour - will significantly reduce the price hike of gas for households to an average of 16 percent, adds Hina.

(Telegraf Biznis)