Household budgets are preparing to suffer a new financial setback related to energy consumption. Hundreds of thousands of Portuguese people could be affected by a new measure, as ERSE wants more expensive gas on residential bills.
The exact answer to this worsening is explained by the newspaper, which says that the new tariffs proposed by the Energy Services Regulatory Entity will come into force on the first day of October and will cover around 437 thousand national consumers.
The financial impact on the regulated market
The entity responsible for regulating services proposes an increase of exactly six point three percent in the price of natural gas. The same source indicates that this percentage will translate into an increase in invoices that varies between eighty-nine cents and one euro and fifty-eight cents during a year.
The consequences for free market customers
The tariff change is not limited to penalizing only households that remain in the state-regulated market. Consumers who opted for the free market will also feel the impact due to an increase of two point three percent in the tariff for access to distribution networks.
The aforementioned source explains that this adjustment in the liberalized market represents an average increase of zero point seventeen cents for each kilowatt-hour consumed. The general increase in raw material acquisition costs forces the regulator to intervene to balance the accounts of the entire national energy system.
The international origin of rising prices
The primary justification for this upward revision in prices lies in the strong geopolitical instability that is plaguing the international scenario. The cost of raw materials soared after the military attack launched by the United States of America and Israel against Iran at the end of February.
The resulting conflict caused a sharp reduction in the supply of fossil fuels and increased the complexity of the exercise of forecasting oil values. Consequently, the price of natural gas suffers severe fluctuations that national entities are forced to reflect in the tariff tables charged to families.
Future uncertainty and market monitoring
The regulatory entity clearly warns that none of these economic decisions can be considered definitive in the long term. The profound uncertainty surrounding the duration of the international conflict prevents the establishment of completely reliable financial forecasts, forcing continuous monitoring of market conditions.
SOL also explains that the final decision on tariffs, which is estimated to impact around 437 thousand consumers, will only be taken and made official by the first of June. It is up to citizens to prepare their budgets to accommodate this inevitable increase in costs that will come into effect at the beginning of October.
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