A total of 19,280 companies have applied for compensations for high energy prices for last August and September from the Economy Ministry, according to the ministry's spokesperson Mária Pavlusík. The firms received €106.9 million by the end of the year. The ministry has thus spent less than one third of the financial package allocated for this aid, which was €360 million.
The Economy Ministry announced a call to submit applications for subsidies to cover increased gas and electricity-related costs in early December 2022. The state was refunding to applicants 80 percent of the sum they paid for gas and electricity above the set ceiling in August and September. The Government set the ceiling for the gas price at €99 per megawatthour (MWh), while it is €199 per MWh in the case of electricity.
Acting Economy Minister Karel Hirman expressed his dissatisfaction with companies' interest in this kind of aid a couple of days after the call was announced. Just a several hundred firms had applied for the aid after five days. The aid was bound to the money from the 2022 state budget and, therefore, companies had only until December 22 to apply for it.
Source: TASR
