Suppliers will set up advance payments for small businesses in regulation according to the capped energy prices set by the government. The annual commodity consumption limit is 30 megawatt hours (MWh) for electricity and 100 MWh for gas. The government will reimburse small firms 100% of the difference between the regulated and the capped energy price. This was stated after Monday's extraordinary cabinet meeting by interim Prime Minister Eduard Heger. "We have also made a change for these entrepreneurs. They will be compensated not 80% of the difference, but 100% of the difference (between regulated and capped energy prices, TASR), because they were the ones who were based on the regulated prices, which were the highest," Heger said. The 20% of the highest surplus is significantly higher than the amount of other entrepreneurs who currently buy energy on the market. Small businesses will get the commodity for €199 for electricity, €99 for gas. Heger added that those entrepreneurs who have recently received advance invoices with extremely high energy prices will be issued new advance invoices on the basis of an agreement with energy suppliers. "Only a significantly smaller part of entrepreneurs have received advance invoices. Many energy suppliers have suspended the issue of advance payments following a request from the Ministry of Economy at the end of last year. These are large suppliers such as SPP, Západoslovenská energetika, but also VSE. They have practically sent only the schedule of advance payments, not the tax document itself," added the temporarily authorized Minister of Economy Karol Hirman. According to Hirman, a substantial part of the advance invoices (tax documents) are due only in February. "So these entrepreneurs may not have paid these advance payments yet. However, they have to pay the invoices they have received for December," the economy minister warned, adding that companies should be guided by their communication with the energy supplier. MPs will discuss energy prices and the support of energy-intensive businesses from the Environment Fund at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday, January 19, the agenda of the session was published on the Parliament's website on Monday evening. The meeting was initiated by Smer-SD. The Environment Ministry considers the convening of the meeting to be a misuse of the topic of high energy prices by the opposition.
Source: TASR
