To promptly alleviate the adverse impact of the extraordinary rise in energy prices on households with low to medium low incomes, on Thursday, 23 November, the Saeima adopted in the third and final reading the Law on State Aid for Energy Supply Costs.
The Law provides for the creation of a unified information system that will automatically identify households eligible for aid when energy prices on the market exceed the maximum price thresholds set by the Cabinet of Ministers. The support measures will apply to electricity, heating, natural gas for heating, as well as decentralised fuels (firewood, pellets, briquettes, diesel fuel, etc.).
The system will extract data from the State Revenue Service, the State Social Insurance Agency, and the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs databases. It will identify individuals declared or registered at the same address as a single household. The system will aggregate the incomes of all these individuals, including pensions and benefits, and calculate the average income over 12 months, determining the household income level per person.
The Cabinet of Ministers will determine the income level eligible for support, as well as the period during which the support will be applicable, as was explained by representatives of the Ministry of Climate and Energy in a meeting of the Saeima Economic, Agricultural, Environmental and Regional Policy Committee, responsible for advancing the Draft Law in the Saeima. The Cabinet of Ministers will also specify what constitutes the household’s total housing‑related expenses, as well as the conditions and procedure for calculating these expenses.
Service providers, property managers, or local governments will receive the addresses of the households eligible for support. The support will be automatically included in the bill for centralised heating, the natural gas consumed for heating purposes, and the first 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity used for purposes other than heating. However, if decentralised fuel and electricity are used for heating, the household will need to file a submission to the municipality. Municipalities will be compensated for administrative expenses related to processing these submissions.
Residents with a declared or registered address in Latvia and Ukrainian civilians with temporary protection status and a specified contact address in Latvia will be eligible for support.
If a person chooses not to claim the support, the Law allows them to opt out of the processing of their data.
The Law will enter into force on the day following its promulgation.
Saeima Press Service