The cabinet is going to relax the conditions for the energy cost allowance (TEK) for SMEs. That writes Minister Micky Adriaansens (Economic Affairs and Climate, VVD) in a letter to the House of Representatives on Wednesday. For the SME compensation, a company first had to spend at least 12.5% of its turnover on energy costs. That has now been adjusted to 7 percent.
The compensation was announced on October 14 and is intended for smaller companies, up to 250 employees. The government wants to compensate so-called energy-intensive companies for the sharply rising tariffs. Earlier calculations assumed that certain fixed components in the energy bill, such as certain taxes, also increased. “However, this is not right,” said the minister.
As a result of the reduction, about 41,000 companies are now helped via the TEK, Adriaansens writes. Small businesses that consume a lot of energy, such as bakers and horticulturists, especially benefit from this. The maximum per company is 160,000 euros. To be eligible, the company must consume more than 5,000 cubic meters of gas or at least 50,000 kWh of electricity annually.
‘Good step’
The TEK will probably not be introduced until the second quarter of 2023 and will then take effect retroactively from November 1, 2022. The total cost of the allowance is estimated to be 1.65 billion euros.
Business organizations MKB-Nederland and NVO-NCW consider lowering the threshold a “very good step”, but want the maximum compensation to go up. “For many energy-intensive companies, such as brick manufacturers, cooling companies and the printing industry, 160,000 euros is just a drop in the ocean.”
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