The gas voucher: possible budgetary gain for the state, but ineffective for consumers, claims an energy expert

Consumers with incomes below 2,500 lei could benefit from financial support in the cold season, receiving a monthly bonus of 100 lei. The mechanism risks being an image operation rather than an effective public policy, as energy expert Dumitru Chisăliță claims, stating that Romania already has a dedicated instrument – ​​the Vulnerable Consumer Law – and the creation of a parallel scheme adds confusion, bureaucracy and administrative costs.

Granting gas vouchers would bring the state much more money than it would spend

According to the energy specialist, the voucher could actually be indirectly financed by those who receive it.

“As today's gas price offers show, a consumer who lives in a house will pay an additional 200 lei/month for gas and will receive a 100 lei/month voucher. That is, he will pay his own voucher! In other words, if there is a Vulnerable Consumer Law, why invent another law with the same purpose?“, believes the energy expert Dumitru Chisăliță.

The Intelligent Energy Association publicly requests that the Vulnerable Consumer Law be adapted, so that it is really protected. “Do not come up with the idea of ​​a voucher that is actually paid for by the consumer who receives it. We are for vouchers but financed from private funds. Social assistance must be a form of real protection, not a populist measure or a covertly redistributed burden“, emphasizes Dumitru Chisăliţă.

The vouchers would cost 300 million lei, but the state would collect 500 million lei

The energy expert estimates that approximately 500,000 Romanians would qualify to receive these vouchers, an aspect that would determine the need for a financial resource of 300 million lei (considering that heating is used for a maximum of 6 months a year in Romania),

According to him, if it is taken into account that the future average price of gas in Romania for the final consumer will be at a level of 360 lei/MWh with VAT included (the average price offered), an increase in VAT revenues will be noted as a result of the increase in the price of gas by approximately 800 million lei/year.

“Deducting the 300 million lei for vouchers, the state would benefit from 500 million lei to the state budget. In other words, the increase in the price of gas would bring the possibility of offering vouchers and obtaining a significant profit for the state budget (to the 500 million lei, another 2.8 billion lei are added from taxes, surcharges, excises, taxes, etc.)“, explains Dumitru Chisăliţă.

Concretely, he says, the state will give vouchers from the money that consumers will pay additionally (a consumer who lives in a house will pay 200 lei/month extra for gas and will receive a 100 lei/month voucher). “In other words, it is unfair to give everyone the same amount of money, regardless of income and consumption“, emphasizes the president of AEI.

The existing system could be improved

But, the specialist argues, the state could “repair” the existing benefit system, instead of creating a new one, because any new scheme that overlaps an already existing one means more confusion for citizens, more administrative costs and, finally, more room for inefficiency and waste.

It is important to offer support to vulnerable consumers through vouchers and help to pay for gas, but these measures must be built on fair and transparent criteria, Chisăliță points out, adding that aid should not be given to everyone, but according to income, wealth, consumption and consumption efficiency, so that it reaches exactly those who really need support.

At the same time, any compensation scheme must avoid passing on costs to other consumers.

“It is not fair that the public or businesses that pay their bills in full bear, through higher tariffs, the costs generated by ill-conceived aid. The right solution is a clearly funded, accountable and sustainable system that does not generate chain effects on the whole market“, added the president of AEI, recalling that the proposal of the Intelligent Energy Association is that the voucher should not be financed by the consumer who receives it, but should be financed by private funds, but “it must be transparently explained what this means and how it is implemented, so that the support does not turn into a hidden tax that, in the end, also ends up in consumer bills”.

Social assistance must be a form of real protection, not a populist measure or a surreptitiously redistributed burden, he adds. “The gas voucher can be presented as social support, but in the form in which it is proposed today, it risks becoming just an exercise in image. If the state really wants to protect the population, the solution is not to invent yet another program, but to strengthen an already existing one and think coherent policies, not momentary campaigns, simultaneously with vouchers from private funds. And people don't need promises anymore beautiful, but correct, effective and sustainable measures“, explains Dumitru Chisăliță, president of the Intelligent Energy Association.