Poland to compensate households for rising power costs

Poland may set aside around 3 billion zlotys ($792 million) in its 2021 budget to compensate households for rising power prices in 2020, Minister of State Assets Jacek Sasin said on Tuesday. Poland's energy regulator URE has approved requests by power companies to hike bills by around 10.5-13% per month in 2020, but the ruling nationalists Law and Justice (PiS) have vowed to protect households from rising costs caused by increasing carbon emission costs and surging wholesale power prices.

"We have certain calculations which are rather in billions ... we think it will be about 3 billion zlotys in total," Sasin said during an interview on broadcaster TVN24. Sasin said that households would be able to apply for compensation from the government for increases in their electricity bills at the end of 2020.

"In the end Poles will not pay more for power, so we will do what was promised," Sasin said. In 2019 prices were capped thanks to a cut in the tax rate consumers pay on electricity and the so-called transitional fee, a component of electricity bills.

($1 = 3.7860 zlotys)

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