By: Moja Dolenjska
“The river Sava flows just the same as before, and the Krško Nuclear Power Plant operates just the same as before, so there really is no reason for the lower charge to go up in price by as much as 66 percent, the higher charge to go up by 34 percent, and the uniform charge to go up by 41 percent.” That was professor Dr Matej Lahovnik’s comment on the announced increase in the price of electricity for households. Lahovnik is also a former Minister of the Economy.
The Gen-I energy company, which primarily resells electricity produced at the Krško Nuclear Power Plant, has announced a high increase in the price of electricity from the 1st of August 2022 onward – and both of the aforementioned companies are state-owned. Gen-I was already reselling the electricity from the power plant at four times the price they paid for it when the company was still headed by the current Prime Minister, Robert Golob.
Gen-I’s business results for the year 2021 are excellent – according to unofficial but reliable data, the management will pay out around 20 million euros in “performance” awards, of which Golob will allegedly receive 1.9 million euros (for ten months of management). He allegedly also received an additional 400 thousand euros from Gen-I last year.
In recent days, the Gen-I energy company has been informing its customers that they are introducing a new energy price list for household customers, which will come into force on the 1st of August. The company has stated that the bill of “the average household customer will be approximately 18 percent higher from August onwards.”
However, a closer look at the cost of a kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity shows that the increases will actually be as follows:
– one kWh used in the higher tariff will now be 34 percent more expensive (the current price of 0.07918 euros will increase to 0.10602 euros),
– one kWh used in the lower tariff will now be 66 percent more expensive (the current price of 0.04391 euros will increase to 0.07308 euros), and
– one kWh used in the unified tariff will now be 41 percent more expensive (the current price of 0.07069 will increase to 0.09992 euros).
The prices include value-added tax (VAT). Let us also remind you that the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) already proposed a lower VAT on electricity and other energy products in May (instead of 22 percent, they proposed the VAT of 5 percent), but Golob’s coalition unanimously rejected the proposal.
The previous Janša government also lowered the excise duties (excise tax). However, Golob’s team would not even dream of it. However, keep in mind that there are several electricity providers on the market, and some are already looking for cheaper ones.