PM Citu: Gas and electricity bills to be compensated as of November 1

Compensation of gas and electricity bills will be applied as of November 1, for both household consumers, and for non-household ones, because we must also take into consideration SMEs and small companies, Prime Minister Florin Citu declared on Thursday.

"At this moment, I want to be sure that what we are doing on the compensation side to be quick, simple, and not to involve the consumer too much. And here I want to be very clear, I am talking about the household and non-household consumer, because this is also about SMEs and small companies, which do not have the same negotiating power as a large company. So, we are talking about the household and non-household consumer. Solutions will be for both categories and we will have this solution as quickly as possible, so that they will come into effect as of November 1," Citu explained, during the online debate "Capping versus Compensation. The saving solution for the topic of the moment: electricity and natural gas bills", organized by DC News.

The Prime Minister said that this compensation needs to be "a good, simple, transparent product", which will be used this winter, but also in the future for "other exceptional situations".

"Compensation moves forward, November 1 - May 31, there is no discussion here," Citu added.

According to him, there will be approximately 5.3 million households, which is almost 10,000,000 people.

The PM also advised caution in the case of an eventual capping of electricity and gas prices, because Romania is a producer of electricity and gas, but it must make sure that it will not affect the companies' investment plans. But, he added, if the European Union decides on capping prices, then Romania will do the same.AGERPRES