Marginal changes in the heating allowance, which will largely be directed by the developments in the international market of “black gold”, without however changing the property and income criteria, the government economic staff plans.
Final decisions will be made at the beginning of October, when there will be a clearer picture of the fiscal margins left by this year’s budget. One of the issues that strongly concerns the officials in charge of the matter, is whether last year’s intervention at the pump will be repeated, which, combined with the “subscription” from the refineries, kept the prices at tolerable levels.
Changes to the heating allowance
According to information so far:
The aid amount has not been locked. Last year the allowance started from 100 euros and reached up to 800 euros depending on the region and the composition of the household with an increase to 1,000 euros especially for residents of very cold areas, while for new beneficiaries and those who turned their backs on natural gas the allowance reached up to 1,600 euros.
The possibility remains open horizontal state subsidy of the price of heating oil at the pump which was implemented last season and compressed the retail price for households to below 1.20 euros per litre. Last year, the refineries also backed out with an additional subsidy at the pump.
Given is considered abolition of the double allowance to convert the burner from natural gas to oil as the price of natural gas has decreased significantly compared to last year. The measure of the double allowance, as sources from the Ministry of Finance clarify, was temporary due to the energy crisis.
The final decisions on the heating allowance to be granted to households will be locked in early October a few days before it starts to be made available.
Who are the beneficiaries of the heating allowance
It is noted that beneficiaries of the heating allowance are single or married or widowed individuals or persons who have entered into a cohabitation agreement or are separated or divorced, who for their heating use internal combustion heating oil or lighting oil (blue kerosene) or natural gas or liquid gas or firewood or biomass (pellets) or thermal energy through district heating. Especially for the granting of a heating subsidy to consumers of firewood and biomass (pellets), an additional condition was set that the property should be located in a settlement with a population equal to or below 10,000 inhabitants and the corresponding subsidy coefficient should be equal to or greater than 0.8.
The heating allowance is granted based on income and property criteria.
The total family income, real and presumed, must be up to 16,000 euros for an unmarried debtor or a widowed or estranged debtor and 24,000 euros for a married debtor or the married parties or the parties to the cohabitation agreement who submit a separate tax return or the married persons who submit a tax return or natural persons who have entered into a cohabitation agreement and have submitted a joint tax return without children, which is increased by 3,000 euros for each child. For a single-parent family, the income is up to 27,000 euros, with an increase of 3,000 euros for each child after the first.
At the same time, the total value of the real estate must not exceed 200,000 euros for singles and 300,000 euros for married or cohabiting parties and single-parent families.
Price forecasts
The projections made by gas stations – based on today’s data – do not rule out a jump in the price of heating oil even to 1.5 euros per liter at the premiere on October 15.
If, however, the forecasts of international analysts are confirmed for the price of Brent (North Sea) to soar even above 100 dollars a barrel, 1.5 euros will be far surpassed.
International prices have jumped $20 a barrel since early July when they hovered near $70 after Saudi Arabia and Russia decided to drastically cut daily production.
Yesterday both countries announced they were extending reduced daily production by 1 million and 300,000 barrels respectively until the end of the year, sending Brent prices above $90 a barrel.
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