The decision is expected to be made by the government at tomorrow’s session.
At its tomorrow’s session, the government will debate and presumably adopt a long-delayed Decree on Renewable Energy Sources Fee (OIE). This means that the price of electricity will increase because the fee that consumers pay with each kilowatt of electrical energy will grow, reports 24.sata.hr on August 30, 2017.
Although there was speculation that the fee would rise from 0.035 to 0.075 kunas, which would increase an average electricity bill by 135 kunas a year, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy has denied that the price would be increased as much. The exact amount of the price increase is expected to be announced before the tomorrow’s session.
In February, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy promised that the electricity price for citizens would be lower than it was in 2016. At the time, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Energy was Slaven Dobrović (MOST). He also spoke about a possible 6% increase in electricity prices at the most.
“There will be an increase in this part regarding renewable energy. For those who are members of the value-added tax system, there will be a certain increase in prices, and depending on the model that will be by 4, 5, or 6 percent. We will see,” said Dobrović at the time.
Electricity companies, such as HEP and RWE, argue that they will not benefit from the increase in electrical energy prices because the fee is not really their revenue, but they only collect it and forward the funds to the HROTE (Croatian Operator of Energy Market).
Ante Čikotić (MOST), the former state secretary at the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy, pointed out that all elements which may contribute to preventing the rise in the electricity prices should be considered before the decision is finally made by the government.
After the collapse of HDZ-MOST government earlier this year, in the new HDZ-HNS government the energy portfolio went to HDZ, which appointed Tomislav Ćorić, former Minister of Labour and Pension System, as the new Environmental Protection and Energy Minister.
Interestingly, HDZ used to accuse Ivan Vrdoljak, the Energy Minister in previous SDP-HNS government, of being the culprit for the probable increase in prices. However, given that HNS is now in a coalition with HDZ, thanks mainly to efforts of Vrdoljak himself, it is likely that HDZ will find someone else to blame.
Translated from 24sata.hr.
