The "cap and subsidy" scheme for the electricity and natural gas prices last winter generated a total cost of RON 3 bln (EUR 0.6 bln) for the state budget, according to estimates of the minister of energy Virgil Popescu.

All the settlements to the suppliers are fully covered by the dividends received by the Ministry of Energy from the profit of the state company Hidroelectrica, the largest electricity producer in Romania, he added.

This is rather surprising since the cost of the scheme should have been covered by the supplementary tax on the windfall profits of the energy (electricity, natural gas) producers.

Nothing in the H1 financials of, for instance, OMV Petrom, indicates that such taxes were levied.

"Absolutely all the payments that were cleared by [the market regulator] ANRE are paid or are going to be paid soon because they should be verified by the regulatory authority. We estimate that we will close the first compensation scheme with costs of around RON 2.5 bln - RON 3 bln, below the budget we estimated. All this money came from the Hidroelectrica dividend," said the minister after the Government meeting on August 3, quoted by Profit.ro.

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andrei@romania-insider.com