Government sets retail energy price for private consumption
Private individuals in Hungary will be charged below the actual market prices for their gas and electricity consumption even if it exceeds the average level under which a price cap is applied, the government commissioner in charge of the government’s utility price cap scheme said at the Baile Tusnad (Tusnádfürdő) summer university, in central Romania, on Thursday.
Szilárd Németh said that the price cap will be applied for up to 1,729 cubic metres of gas used per year (144m3/month) and for 2,523 kilowatt hours of electricity used per year (210kWh/month) by a household.
Read alsoIMF: Hungary is in the biggest crisis due to the Russian gas shutdown
Households will pay 102 forints (EUR 0.25) for a cubic meter of gas for their consumption below the limit, and 747 forints for each cubic metre in excess, while the market price is 1,020 forints, Németh said.
One kilowatt hour of electricity will cost 36 forints below the limit and 70.1 forints above, while the market price is 268.9 forints, he said.
Separately metered water heaters, operated at night, will be charged 23.1 forints a kilowatt hour below the limit and 62.9 forints above, Németh said.
I wish the gas and electricity provider, in my case MVM, would do their annual readings in the summer. I read the meters monthly and submit, but when it comes to someone from MVM coming out to do the annual reading in December, we have to wait too long for them to prepare the bill. This means their website won’t accept a reading during the wait as we only get a short window to submit. We miss a month and now with the new tariff, the bill will be much bigger.
From Dec (MVM) to Feb (us) a gas reading was 564. If I’m correct, in theory it should be 144 x 2 months at the low price of 102, then anything over that is the higher price of 747.
At a time of such high inflation, plus the high VAT, every forint counts.
MVM need to either switch to the summer when they read meters or get their act together to get the bills out quicker.