“I imagine it would be very good if we could fix the price at the level of 24 euro cents. The proposals presented by the prime minister today were related to different prices, slightly higher,” he told the TV3 Demesio Centre (In Focus) program on Monday.
The scheme approved by the government in late May for the period from July through December, provides for covering up to 9 euro cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for electricity. The minimum standard electricity tariff below which the cost of electricity will not be subsidized was then set at 24 cents per kWh.
Nauseda also said that he had asked Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte on Monday to calculate several options that could be used to assess the fiscal impact of those measures and to decide “how much the state is able to take on its shoulders”.
“It depends on the financial capacity of the state. We talked about the horizontal principle, in other words – for everyone, but with the aim of fixing the price, which people will pay for electricity from January 1, as low as possible,” the Lithuanian leader said referring to compensatory measures.
Simonyte said on Monday after discussing compensatory measures with the president that it would be necessary to provide for more than 1 billion euros for electricity subsidies in the country’s next year budget.