Parliament adopted a draft law on compensation of households affected by power outages during the Christmas holidays

The government has allocated 2.2 million BGN to compensate households that were affected by power outages during Christmas holidays. These funds will be reimbursed by the electricity distribution companies (EDCs) within a one-month period. This decision was made by the Parliament when adopting the special bill on compensation at second reading. Heavy sanctions for refusal to make payments were also set.

A total of 26,000 household subscribers will be compensated by deducting amounts from their electricity bills. For this purpose, the cabinet allocated 2.2 million to the Ministry of Energy, which will be made available to the utilities through the Energy Security Fund.

Each energy company has one month to return the money to the Energy Security Fund. If it fails to do so, the fine will be 700,000 BGN.

The energy companies have said they are appealing against any decision by the energy minister that they should take all the blame for the disrupted power supply over the Christmas holidays.

"Energo-Pro", which provides electricity to Northeastern Bulgaria, commented that the draft law is unjust, legally unfounded, and shifts the social costs of the state, onto businesses. EVN Bulgaria also disagrees with today’s legislative decision.

Petar Kostadinov EVN Bulgaria: "The decision adopted today by the Parliament in the second reading, the heated debates, showed that this decision is ambiguous - we do not accept it, we believe that legislation made on the fly, adopted from today to tomorrow and for an individual case is not something that fosters a favourable business environment."

Electrodistribution West described the text as discriminatory and unconstitutional.

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