“What we will have from 1 July is people who have a right to the social tariff actually having access to the social tariff,” said the secretary of state for energy, Jorge Seguro Sanches, after a ceremony in Lisbon at which the agreements on the new rules were signed.
“The law will finally be observed in Portugal, six year after” it came into effect.
The new rules are aimed at reversing the onus between consumers and suppliers: whereas in the past consumers had to set in train a bureaucratic process in which they had to prove their eligibility, from 1 July they will be informed that they now have a right to a discount on their bills. They then have 30 days to oppose the change, if they wish to do so.
Sanches did not say how many people should now benefit from the social tariff who are not currently doing so, saying only that in the last six months the number of beneficiaries has doubled, to more than 180,000.
According to figures released in April by the energy regulator, the ERSE, the number of beneficiaries of the social tariff for electricity almost tripled in the year to end-March to more than 140,000.
The secretary of state was a member of a team of five who worked on finalising the process of exchange of information between energy suppliers the Directorate-General of Geology and Energy, the Institute of Social Security, the Informatics Institute and the Tax office, aided by the Agency for Administrative Modernisation.
The social tariff for electricity was created in 2010, under the previous Socialist government, and the tariff for natural gas was introduced a year later with the aim of guaranteeing lower prices for less-well-off consumers.
Sanches also announced the creation of an Energy Observatory to oversee the functioning of the social tariff and ensure that the law is properly applied in future.
Automatic access to the social tariff was a measure proposed by the Left Block during the debate on the 2016 state budget, subsequently supported by the governing Socialists.
The social tariffs represent discounts of 33.8 percent on electricity and 31.2 percent on gas.
One of the eligibility criteria is income, with the cut-off level increased by 50 percent for each additional member of the household, up to a maximum of 10 members. The ceiling for a one-member household is €5,808 a year, for a two-member household €8,712, for a couple with one child €11,616, and for a couple with two children €14,520.
Recipients of the benefits for less well-off pensioners, basic income, basic unemployment benefit, child benefit, disability benefit and basic pension, are also all eligible for the social tariff. TPN/Lusa