The new scheme for compensating energy and gas bills will be applied from February 1, but not retroactively, and the ruling coalition is analyzing what measures it will take from April 1, Energy Minister Virgil Popescu said on Tuesday.

The new emergency ordinance was adopted at the Government meeting on Tuesday afternoon, he was quoted as saying by Agerpres.

The Minister was asked when the new discounts will be applied in the bills, as there was information that the Government intends to retroactively implement the new scheme, from November 1, 2021.

“We do not want to risk unconstitutionality and no law is acting retroactively, so it cannot be applied retroactively, but from the clear deadline of February 1. We will discuss in the coalition in the near future and we will think about what we will do from April 1. We have several scenarios,” Popescu said.

He pointed out that the budgetary impact of this scheme is of 3 billion lei, money that exists in the state budget.

Asked why the state did not pay the money to suppliers on time, he said that this will happen after the invoices are drawn up correctly, according to the law.

“We have the money in the budget. As the payment requests come in … Nobody wants to block the national energy system and the supply side, but we want the other side of the table, the suppliers, to draw up the bills properly, in so that there is the comfort from the employees of the Ministry of Energy that they certify some payments based on correctly issued invoices. I assure all suppliers that they will not have arrears when the payment statements are prepared according to the law,” Popescu stressed.

Also, the Ministry of Economy proposed that ANPC be able to give fines between 20,000 and 200,000 lei for non-application of the law, given that the maximum sanction that ANPC could issue so far was of 50,000 lei.