Govt cancels hike in power bills

The Energy Ministry’s amendment cancels out the special duty for gas emission reductions

A relevant ministry on Monday announced that increases in a special duty for the reduction of gas emissions (ETMEAR), which had been decided by Greece’s power regulator RAE, will be cancelled.

The amendment concerning this is to be included in the first draft bill to be submitted to Parliament. Furthermore, account revenues from renewable sources of energy funded by ETMEAR are to be re-examined. The amendment states that the unit charges for the special duty concerning the reduction of gas emissions will remain unchanged in 2014 to levels set for 2014.

The explanatory statement accompanying the amendment states that “the provision is deemed necessary to allow for the reassessment and redefinition of the revenues of the Special Account of article 40 of Law 2773/1999 and service the objectives pursued without burdening customers from an increase of ETMEAR.