The social rates for electricity and gas will rise again on 1 October, energy regulator CREG announced on Tuesday. Rates also rose sharply in the third quarter, but they still benefited from the VAT reduction earlier this year.
From 1 October, the average social rate for electricity will rise by 7.8 percent and for natural gas by 9.9 percent, according to the CREG. The increase is therefore slightly higher than the previous one, on 1 July.
The single rate for electricity will then be 26,510 cents per kilowatt hour, including VAT. From 1 October, the social rate for natural gas is 3.4 cents per kilowatt hour, including VAT.
Despite the increase, still considerably cheaper than market rates
The social rate is a reduced rate for certain categories of persons or households, for example people who are entitled to a living wage, residents of social housing or the elderly with an income guarantee. An estimated 2 million people are entitled to it. The rate is the same for all energy suppliers and is set every three months by the CREG.
The regulator points out that the increase in the social rate is capped. “Without capping, tariff increases would have been much higher, averaging 41 percent for electricity and 276 percent for natural gas.” The social rate therefore remains a lot cheaper than the market rates for energy.
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