The government has decided that the reduced gas and electricity prices for Hungarian families will remain in the utility year starting in August, the government commissioner responsible for maintaining the utility reduction announced at a press conference in Budapest on Tuesday.
The amount needed for this is also available in 2024 in the overhead protection fund of the budget, Szilárd Németh said.
Thanks to the utility reduction, every Hungarian family that consumes energy up to the average consumption can save HUF 181,000 per month, he added.
The Fidesz politician reminded that: a year ago, the Hungarian government decided that - in response to the war and the failed Brussels sanctions policy - it would maintain the utility reduction up to the level of average consumption by all means.
This is 1,729 cubic meters/year for gas and 2,523 kilowatt hours/year for electricity. In the case of electricity, 78 percent of households and 85 percent of households in the case of gas fall into this category
he added.
As a result of the decision, based on Eurostat data, people still have the cheapest access to energy in Hungary in the entire European Union. At purchasing power parity, only the wallets of Luxembourgers and Belgians are burdened less by the payment of utilities. In other words, in countries like the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany or Sweden, people have to pay more for household energy compared to their income than Hungarians, he added.
He also spoke about the fact that the government stands by the policy of utility reduction despite the fact that both Brussels and the Hungarian left constantly attack the measure.
Brussels would make Hungarian families pay the price of the war and the failed sanctions policy and would take away the authority to set the household energy price from national competence. And the domestic "dollar left" completely serves the interests of Brussels in return for the funds received from abroad, said Szilárd Németh.
MTI
Featured image: MTI/Tamás Kovács
