MR puts the cliquet energy price system on the table

Soaring energy bills are worrying politicians across Europe. left one Spanish government It seizes weapons by lowering the value-added tax and temporarily eliminating the profits of energy companies. Greece has already taken measures, and in Italy and France the government is considering plans to help families pay their sharply increased electricity bill.

With us, the parties in Vivaldi’s coalition sniff each other in all sorts of ways. MR President Georges Louis Boches is the next to put a proposal on the table. “Because 60 percent of the bill is made up of taxes and costs from distribution system operators, we can apply a cliquet system to it to provide assistance to people who need it,” it appears on Twitter.

This cliquet system is already in place for fuel. The tax is automatically reduced if the price rises above a certain threshold. In addition, there is a reverse system that slows down the price decline by increasing production fees. Bushes’ proposal, of course, is primarily aimed at mitigating higher electricity prices.

The energy regulator CREG has calculated that the price of electricity for an average family rises to more than 1,000 euros per year and the price of gas to 1,600 euros. For electricity, 45 percent of the price in Flanders is spent on value-added tax and energy taxes. For gas this is 21 percent. This may differ from the situation in Brussels and Wallonia.

To Flemish liberals, Bosch’s proposal appears to be an option to be considered. Open VLD President Egbert Laschert noted that the real debate should be about higher energy taxes. The only solution is to do a basic electricity bill analysis. But Lashart says the federal government has to look at that with the provinces.

The discussion also comes after action by Federal Energy Minister Tinne Van der Straeten (Groen). Submitted this week Social rate extension For electricity and gas. 450,000 families already enjoyed this rate before the Corona crisis. At the beginning of this year, the Vivaldi Alliance issued 176 million euros to add another 450,000 low-income families. The Greens tend to make the temporary measure structural.

Besides Groenen, PS is for Van der Straeten plans. Sp.a more careful. “Interesting, but it doesn’t solve much,” says Chris Verduct, an energy specialist and federal parliamentarian. Its president, Connor Russo, says he is not against Knack. “But if that means that prices are allowed to go up for the working class and the middle class, I think that’s very weak.”

This expansion came about because of the aura. Thus, any proposal for a further extension or extension must be approved at the government table.” The issue will be discussed at the budget meeting at the end of this month. But the parties will undoubtedly put other needs on the table. We will see what our best options are. The Monitoring Committee will meet, which is The Senior Officials’ Budget Monitoring Group, next week.

“There will be no price bans under any circumstances,” a senior federal government source said. “The Dutch solution is interesting. Make electricity cheaper, because it is non-fossil. The Netherlands has chosen to gradually reduce its electricity bill and increase that over gas, because climate goals can be achieved with electricity better than with gas.

The VAT reduction, as in Spain, was applied to us in 2014. But in 2015 the rate was raised again from 6 to 21 percent. It doesn’t seem like a path again because it doesn’t really contribute to boosting energy efficiency.

CD&V President Joachim Coens (CD&V) refers to one of the measures that was included in the alliance agreement: the energy standard. Van der Straeten is working on a bill on the energy standard. This should ensure that the energy bill for homes and businesses in Belgium does not rise faster than in neighboring countries.

Prices are not expected to drop until next spring. The price of gas is rising due to the recovery of the economy and the seasonal effect. The increase in electricity prices is due to the increase in carbon dioxide prices in the context of emissions allowance trading. It seems that “you can’t do much about it without intervening at the European level”.