The Energy Ministry has confirmed that household energy bills in Hungary will stay level until the end of April.
The ministry, which was established in December amid strained circumstances on the international energy market, is focused on ensuring that households continue to benefit from caps on their energy bills while guaranteeing supply security, it said in a statement. As well as households with independent heating, residents in homes linked to district heating will also continue to enjoy subsidies on their bills. By next autumn, non-residential consumers will also be able to take advantage of much cheaper district heating services, it added. Meanwhile, businesses, municipalities and social organisations will benefit from an emergency measure which caps electricity fees from January, affecting 1,700 consumers, including 200 municipalities and their institutions. The statement said gas storage capacity in Hungary, in proportion to consumption, is around double the European average. Halfway through the heating season, stored gas is sufficient to provide the country’s heating needs for roughly 90 winter days. It added that supplies will be impacted by new EU-wide rules introduced from February, including the gas-price cap and a stricter ban on the import of Russian oil products, but the government will ensure that consumers in Hungary do not experience any energy shortages.