November 6 (BTA) - At an extraordinary meeting on Saturday, the Council of Ministers approved changes to the programme for compensating non-household end-users of electricity which was approved on October 26, the Government Information Service reported.

The changes are aimed to facilitate the implementation of the programme and the effective protection of all non-household users of electricity buying from the free market at a time when electricity prices are high.

The revisions allow the energy minister to write down in the standard agreements with the suppliers various dates for submitting requests, for obtaining necessary information from the Electricity System Security Fund and for reimbursing the electricity suppliers for the compensation provided to non-household end-users. This is necessary because different suppliers have different conditions and deadlines for providing invoices to their customers.

The changes to the compensation programme also make it possible for compensation invoices issued before the signing of the Energy Ministry's agreement with the respective supplier to be included in the compensation. Where such invoices are concerned, the supplier is required to notify the client about the compensation due to him, which will be provided by reducing subsequent payments owed by the client.

At the extraordinary meeting, the government also approved the design of the standard agreement to be used when compensating businesses for rising electricity prices. By the same decision, the Council of Ministers tasked the energy minister with signing such agreements with electricity traders, last-instance suppliers, producers selling directly to non-household end-users and the operator of the organized electricity exchange market. The payments under the agreements will be effected after receiving the green light from the European Commission.

Such agreements are necessary for the practical implementation of the government-approved programme for compensation to businesses, which stipulates that all non-household end-users will be compensated with 110 leva for every megawatt-hour of electricity used. The measure should be effective over a period of two months, in October and November. Users will receive the first compensations when they get their electricity bills for October, which are payable in November. VE

Source: Sofia