TIRANA, September 23 – As it was expected the Board of Energy Regulator Entity (ERE) decided on Friday what PM Edi Rama had ruled a few weeks ago: the price for the amount of over 800 kwh of electricity will be 42 lek per kwh. So, all families and businesses that consume more than 800 kwh of electricity will pay 4 times more for the energy starting from October 1.
“The demand for the new price for household consumers, who consume over 800 kilowatt hours per month, is a consequence of the increase in the price of electricity. The decision is necessary in the conditions of the emergency declared by the government for the supply of electricity,” said the rapporteur of the decision.
According to him, this decision is of high public interest to guarantee the supply of electricity to consumers. “The request fulfills the legal requirements. We estimate that setting a price of 42 lek per kilowatt will cover the purchase of energy and create liquidity to import. We propose setting the price at 42 ALL for the period from October 1 to December 31, 2022,” said the rapporteur of the decision.
The secretary of the ERE board explained that the bill will change in this way: If we take as an example the family consumption in the value of 850 kilowatts per month: 800 kilowatts will be billed at 9.5 lek per kilowatt; 50 kilowatts will be billed at 42 lek per kilowatt. In total, 1940 Lek VAT and 100 Lek television fee are added. The bill will be 11,740 ALL.
The decision affects all those who pay electricity bills more than 9,120 ALL per month. So, if each kilowatt consumed above this band will cost 4.4 times more compared to the current price. The ban will last at least until December 31 of this year and will be reviewed thereafter. Earlier, Prime Minister Edi Rama said that there are about 40,000 families that consume more than 800 kwh and in the peak period this number goes to about 60,000.
The deputy of the Democratic Party (DP), Jorida Tabaku said at the ERE meeting that this institution had no reason to be the notary of the government’s decisions, but must calculate the consequences that the increase in energy will cause to the citizens. /Argumentum.al