The first months of providing energy assistance, which the government Robert Fitz introduced at the end of last year, several shortcomings and “holes in the system” were revealed. One of them is trying to be patched up by the government’s draft amendment to the Act on Energy, which was drawn up by the Ministry of Economy.
Department of the Minister Denisa Sakova (Voice) interferes, that energy assistance is also received by entrepreneurs who pretend to be households.
According to proposal amendments to the Act on Energy, households will have to prove in the future that they use energy for their own consumption and not for business.
The amendment has been in parliament since mid-April and is scheduled to enter into force on July 1 of this year.
Fictitious households?
The draft amendment to the Act on Energy envisages that the rules for the purchase of electricity and gas at preferential rates for households will be tightened.
“Its aim is to narrow the space for the purchase of electricity and gas at a rate intended for households, if the customer uses the energy for business,” the explanatory report reads.
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In practice, this can happen, for example, when restaurant or boarding house act as a household vis-à-vis the energy supplier.
We did not learn from the Ministry of Economy how many “fictitious” households are affected by this problem. It did not answer INDEX’s questions even after the emergency.
Analyst Radovan Potočár also admits the motivation to abuse the setting of tariffs. According to him, it could have increased in recent years because the state ensured preferential energy supplies only for households, while companies remained outside the most generous support schemes.
However, the CEO of Magna Energia Martin Ondko reminds that no one applied for energy assistance, because it was allocated on the basis of data collected by the Ministry of Economy, so it is not possible to accuse anyone of cheating or abusing the tariff for households.
“Energy aid, as it is set up, cannot be abused. The criteria were set by the Ministry of Economy, so the customer is not lying about anything,” he thinks.
