Citizens’ energy bills are already going down this year. Government officialsare still working on plans until late in the evening to make this happen.
There will be a so-called price ceiling in the energy bill. An agreement hasbeen reached on this with the various energy companies. This means that ahousehold that uses an average amount of gas and electricity will never losemore than a maximum amount. In any case, the ceiling will come into effect onJanuary 1.
It is still being investigated whether it is possible to introduce the ceilingas of 1 November, but this may lead to technical problems at some companies.If that fails, the airlines are already trying to reduce the advance they asktheir customers for the last months of this year. It is still beinginvestigated whether this is possible with every energy provider. Butaccording to an insider ‘it will just be arranged’.
Energy tax
Today, the cabinet and the group leaders of coalition parties VVD, D66, CDAand ChristenUnie have been discussing a way to curb the rising energy costs ofcitizens and businesses. On Monday afternoon, the leaders of oppositionparties PvdA and GroenLinks were also invited for a meeting with MinisterSigrid Kaag (Finance). Their support is needed to get the government’s budgetplans through the Senate.
The government will compensate energy companies if the price of gas andelectricity is higher than the agreed maximum amount that they can chargecitizens. It is not yet possible to say how many billions of euros that willcost. That depends on how high the gas price will be next winter. It has beenagreed in the coalition that the proposed reduction in energy tax for nextyear will then no longer be necessary.
Ukraine
It is not yet clear exactly how high the ceiling will be. In The Hague,bandwidths circulate between 1200 to 1500 cubic meters of gas and 2500 to 3000kilowatt hours of electricity per year. Until that limit is reached, peoplewill then pay the rate that applied to the invasion of Ukraine at thebeginning of this year. Anything above that must be settled at the highermarket rate. In this way, the cabinet wants to ‘incentivize’ everyone to useenergy economically.
In addition, the cabinet is working on an emergency fund that can help peoplewho can no longer pay their energy bills. In this way, it should be preventedthat defaulters are closed next winter.
Prince’s Day
The plans for an energy ceiling cannot yet be fully worked out before BudgetDay. The cabinet will send a separate letter to the House of Representativeson Tuesday, together with all budget plans made earlier for next year, withthe plan. It is still unclear at what rate the gas and electricity prices willbe fixed. More time is needed to determine that.
The cabinet’s last minute action is highly unusual. The plans for Prinsjesdagwere already ready. The Budget Memorandum has already been printed. More than16 billion euros in measures are being taken to support the purchasing powerof citizens. But at the last minute the cabinet and coalition parties decidedthat more needs to be done.