Switching back to heating oil
The Finance Ministry plans to further reduce the electricity bills of those who cut their energy usage, while in the next few days it will announce incentives to boost the use of heating oil instead of electricity through the yearly subsidy.
Kathimerini understands the government’s planning will change drastically for 2023, so that the budget can cover the needs mainly of households. The horizontal reductions in electricity bills will stop and the subsidy will be based on consumption. Those who use less electricity will have a higher subsidy compared to other consumers.
Incentives are also planned to have consumers return to heating oil through the heating allowance. At the same time, it appears the amount of the allowance will increase and the income criteria will be broadened, so that there are more beneficiaries of the heating allowance. One of the scenarios envisages a 20-30% increase in the cash to be allocated for the heating allowance this year.
What remains open now is the support to the 700,000 households that use gas, as they can’t revert to heating oil.