The latest alarm on the risk of new increases for electricity and gas bills was launched by the Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment (Arera): in the absence of further corrective measures by the government, the first quarter of 2022 “a further potentially significant increase in prices for protection services that would determine critical issues similar to those faced for the fourth quarter of 2021”. The most up-to-date forecasts in circulation, but the definitive numbers will only be available in the coming weeks, speak of a 50% increase in the gas bill and an increase in the cost of electricity between 17% and 25 percent.
The anti-price increase fund foreseen in the maneuver
The government has already run for cover in an attempt to lighten the impact of possible new increases and is recovering resources to define a new intervention. But what measures and how many funds have so far been tracked down? Let’s start with resources. An initial response, as will be remembered, came in recent weeks in the maneuver approved by the Council of Ministers which contained an ad hoc fund of 2 billion euros to cushion the effects of the new increases in bills. A talent immediately considered insufficient to guarantee a real breath of fresh air to families and companies struggling with the payment of the energy bill.
The overall endowment
So the executive worked to raise new funds and added other items to the 2 billion. The anti-bill fund was thus joined first by another 500 million recovered from the “treasury” of the tax cut and another 300 million were traced from the folds of the budget after the stop to the solidarity contribution on high incomes. To these, in the last few hours, another 2 billion were added as a result of an operation, orchestrated by the Minister of Economy, Daniele Franco, a profound connoisseur of the public accounts machine, which made it possible to anticipate some expenses to 2021, thanks to the surplus of some funds at the end of the year, and to free up further fiscal spaces for 2022. At present, therefore, there are 3.8 billion, but the final figures will only be known when the government has put pen to paper, with very likely at the beginning of next week, the amendment to the maneuver expected from the passage to the Senate.
The double track indicated by Minister Giorgetti
So far, therefore, the resources. But what can be done with these funds? It must be said that at the moment there is no definitive framework and, as the Minister of Economic Development, Giancarlo Giorgetti, recalled on Friday, the problem must be tackled under two aspects “one in the short term and the other in the long term” because an account ” it is to stop the next quarter but if the overheating of prices continues in 2022 there is a risk of upsetting many sectors, especially those that use a lot of energy; some sectors already bear this burden today “. As if to say that we must also work on broader measures. And here are the hypotheses being examined by the government, with the Minister of Ecological Transition, Roberto Cingolani, at the forefront of the dossier.
The buffer measure launched in September
It is worth remembering, first of all, that the effort made at the end of September to temporarily cancel the general system charges in the bill and enhance the social bonus (the discount on the energy bill for families in difficulty), amounted to 3.5 billion euros. The addition of the last few hours, therefore, served to bring the overall dowry to a level comparable to the commitment already ensured by the executive upstream of the latest quarterly update ordered by the Arera.