The Croatian government is hammering out a set of measures to help households, the public sector, SMEs, pensioners, the farm sector and destitute people with energy bills, and according to some information the scheme will cost HRK 6 billion (€800 million), the Jutarnji List daily reported on Saturday.

The scheme is being fine-tuned and is to be presented to coalition partners as well as to social partners next week.

According to the daily newspaper’s article, the methodology for electricity tariff calculation for the public sector will be changed so that educational institutions, senior citizens and nursing homes, children’s homes, hospitals, museums and civil society associations, and religious facilities will no longer pay the electricity tariff as the business sector.

They will be entitled to the same model as households, according to the daily.

People in need and pensioners are likely to receive discounts or coupons.

The previous set of measures which the Andrej Plenkovic cabinet adopted in mid-February included the coupons for electricity bills for senior citizens at risk of poverty, and those coupons increased from 200 to 400 kuna a month.

Pensioners whose monthly income was up to HRK 4,000 were entitled to payment between HRK 400 and 1,200 under the energy support scheme, adopted in February.

The Jutarnji List daily recalls that the relief package for 720,000 pensioners with a monthly allowance below 4,000 cost the state HRK 470 million.

Gas prices regulated

The Value Added Tax rate on gas and heating energy was lowered from 25% to 5%, as a temporary measure in place from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

On 24 August, the government tabled a bill lowering the VAT on the supply of wood chips, wood pellets and firewood to 5% and envisaging a zero VAT rate for solar panels.

Also, the state subsidises the gas bills for households with HRK 0.10 per kilowatt-hour, which costs the budget HRK 600 million.

Furthermore, micro and SMEs with an annual gas consumption of up to 10 gigawatt-hour are entitled to the subsidising of HRK 0.15 per kilowatt-hour, which can be exercised through coupons and this measure also costs HRK 600 million.

(€1 = HRK 7.516559)