Number of families eligible for energy compensation to increase

The government will revise the criteria for granting energy compensation during the next cold season so that more families can benefit from it compared with the initial calculations prepared by the authorities. The measure was announced today by Prime Minister Vasile Tofan, as the government approved decisions on declaring a state of emergency in the energy sector for a period of 60 days.

The prime minister emphasized that the coming winter will be more difficult than the previous one in terms of energy tariffs, due to regional developments. In this context, Vasile Tofan said that the authorities must intervene to support citizens.

Thus, the prime minister highlighted the need to revise the compensation scheme so that more households can benefit from it.


“I admit that, although our instincts were to be very, very economical when it comes to state spending—and we must continue to be so—in areas where we need to intervene, I believe we must revise some of our views regarding, first and foremost, helping people during the winter. I have made statements saying that we can no longer afford compensation as generous as in previous years, because in those years we spent between 2.5 billion and 3.5 billion lei per winter. Indeed, we cannot afford to spend billions of lei on compensation every year. At the same time, this winter I must acknowledge that we will have to revise this initial decision once again and increase the compensation compared with the initial plans. We did not expect gas prices to be this high. That is why I spoke with Minister Plugaru and Finance Minister Victoria Belous: we must revise this compensation and ensure that it covers a larger number of households. Last year, we covered 620,000 households. This year, we would have liked to narrow the coverage further because we simply do not have the money, but I believe that this year too we must find these funds, by every possible and impossible means, to cover a larger number of households. This figure will probably be even higher than 620,000, because the coming winter will be more difficult than the previous one in terms of tariffs,” Vasile Tofan said at the government meeting.


In recent years, the government has provided citizens with energy compensation through the Help at the Meter program.