Only vulnerable households will be subsidized for electricity

Families with a monthly income of less than 100 euros per member will be able to benefit from the energy subsidy. Based on the draft program for the protection of vulnerable consumers, the total amount of subsidy for the entire winter period cannot exceed the value of 600 euros. Experts in the economy say that this amount is insufficient.

The government has planned that during the winter season, only families with an income of less than 100 euros per month per member will be subsidized for the electricity they spend.

According to the draft of the program for the protection of vulnerable energy consumers, the total amount of the subsidy for the entire period of the program cannot exceed the value of 600 euros.

"Family Economies (EF) that qualify for subsidy based on the Program are those that have monthly incomes at a lower level or equal to 100 euros per person/member or in other words, 400 euros for 4 members (cumulative incomes will be proportional to the number of members in the household declared by the applicant, to assess whether they are less than or equal to the set income threshold)", the draft of this program states. "Income verification through the income test will be performed once, while the subsidy payment will be made during the winter season. The application will be open to all citizens, while the amount of the subsidy will vary from one EF to another, since the formula for calculating the subsidy takes into account the revenues that the EF lacks to reach the threshold of 100 euros per person , which is not uniform for everyone".

The President of the Consumers' Association, Selatin Kaçaniku, considers that this amount provided for subsidy for electricity bills is not enough.

"If you consider that 30 percent of poor families have now gone bankrupt, and bankruptcy endangers the so-called middle class, considering that the basket used to be around 250 euros, now it is not even enough for half a basket, for a half- medium needs more than 1,100 euros per month, and this amount seems ridiculous. Most pensioners live on 100 euros, and this 100 euros is throwing gasoline on the fire of poverty", said Kaçanik.

Fidan Qerimi, an expert on economic issues, said that the subsidy for electricity bills should be based on the minimum wage.

"The threshold to benefit is low, because even the minimum wage is twice as high. The threshold should have been up to the minimum wage and subsidized according to the scheme that is foreseen, but the threshold for benefit should have been the minimum wage. I think it's a small help for families in need who don't have the opportunity to fulfill the basic things", said Qerimi.

Based on the draft program, all applications will be accepted through the eKosova platform. The application module will be developed by the Ministry of Finance, Labor and Transfers in cooperation with the Information Society Agency in Kosovo. 

The application is expected to start from next month.

"The application module will be open from September 1, 2024 to March 25, 2025. During this period, citizens have the opportunity to apply and modify their application. However, citizens who want to benefit for the entire period foreseen in the Program, must apply in the first month of the opening of the application. Family economies that apply from the second month onwards will be examined for benefits only for the remaining period, so there will be no retroactive examination", the program states.

The document also contains the formula for the highest level of subsidy, which can benefit families with a monthly income of less than 100 euros per member.

It is emphasized there that the monthly incomes according to this document are considered all the monthly incomes of the family economy with the exception of the categories: pensions for disabled people, compensations for blind people, pensions for work disability, compensations for paraplegic and tetraplegic people , compensations for families of disabled children, pensions for war invalids, pensions for the family of the KLA martyr and the family of the missing KLA, pensions for the family of civilian victims, and social assistance.

"The maximum level of electricity subsidy for Family Economies for the specified period is the sum of the maximum levels of electricity subsidy for each member of the Family Economy, which for one member is 900 kwh", the document states. "The total amount of the electricity subsidy for the entire period of the Program for the family economy cannot exceed the value of six hundred euros (€600) or calculated separately, the monthly bill of the corresponding month".

During this governing mandate, the price of electricity has almost doubled. In the year when the price increase occurred, the government subsidized all consumers, a practice it has not continued in other years.