Bills up 88%, government to help with bills

• Up to a quarter of customers using the services of local heating plants may experience a 20 percent increase in heat prices.
• - The Ministry of Culture and Environment proposes to introduce a heating voucher as a form of support, which will go directly to households affected by the increase in heating costs - writes Rp.pl.
• This solution is intended to be precise, effective and fair, based on the income and actual expenses incurred by recipients.

The government's heat subsidy mechanism ended in June. As a result, we can expect an increase in central heating and hot water charges . Of course, not everyone will be affected by the price increases, as, as rp.pl explains, everything depends on the fuel source, the date it was contracted, and the location.

There are still two months until the start of the heating season, but the Ministry of Climate and Environment has prepared proposals for solutions that will be taken over by the new Ministry of Energy. Minister Miłosz Motyka will have to seek funding from the Minister of Finance to mitigate these increases.

Deputy Minister of Climate and Environment Urszula Zielińska told rp.pl that up to about a quarter of customers using local heating plants could experience, as she put it, "moderate price increases" of up to 20 percent . But that's not all. Around 10 percent of heating customers may require special intervention.

We're talking here, for example, about heating plant customers who signed long-term contracts for gas or coal supplies at extremely high prices in 2022. Some of these contracts are still in force—and they're the reason why one in ten heating customers now pay disproportionately high tariffs.

Zielińska said, pointing out that such situations could occur in Silesia, among other places. Rp.pl estimates that in extreme cases, the increase could reach as much as 88 percent.

Zielińska also assured that her ministry is working on a new protective mechanism for district heating customers. Previously, the state subsidized heating companies for the difference between their actual price and the statutory maximum price, but this solution has become unjustified.

Raw material prices have fallen significantly, giving companies time to conclude new contracts and lower tariffs. Already, more than half of companies are not using the compensation mechanism at all , meaning the vast majority of households using district heating—roughly six in ten families—will not experience any price increases, and some may even expect slight tariff reductions.

- says the deputy minister.

According to Rp.pl, for this reason, the ministry is proposing the introduction of a heating voucher as a form of support, which will go directly to households affected by rising heating costs. This solution is intended to be precise, effective, and fair, based on income and actual expenses incurred by customers.

Work on the law that would enable the payment of vouchers is already being completed, but the problem is securing funds for this purpose in the budget.

Although the exact price of the new mechanism is still unknown, the approximate scale of expenditure is shown by the expenditures made so far to freeze heat prices - from 2022, the government has allocated a total of PLN 9.4 billion for this purpose.