A new set of measures to help households and enterprises has not been defined yet and currently focuses on power and gas, Finance Minister Marko Primorac said on Monday about a new aid scheme to go into force on 1 April. Pročitaj više

All other financial support for lowest-income citizens will remain in force and the pace of the payments will likely be adapted to the collection of extra-profit tax, he added.

The current aid scheme, which regulates power and gas prices, among other things, expires on 31 March.

Primorac said measures bringing citizens security should be adopted also for the period after 1 April and that they must be targeted and temporary. There are citizens with sufficiently high incomes for whom prices should not be fully subsidised, or as much as they have been, he added.

According to the current measures, households which consume up to 2,500 kWh of power in six months pay one price, while the rate for higher consumption is 50% more expensive.

Primorac said the rate should be even higher, closer to market prices, and that the government should not subsidise higher consumption so much for citizens with more money.

Asked whether wages or assets would be taken into account, he said there was currently no household or population register, so it is possible that someone with a low pension has other sources of income.

The Finance Ministry could therefore launch a project for compiling household and population registers, which would make it possible to better target all future aid schemes, Primorac said, but added that making the registers will take a while, although a concept has been drawn up.