Electricity bills, the Energy Authority clarifies. With a note released in recent days, the Arera has quantified the amount of the expense that we will pay to settle the arrears of others
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himElectricity bills, the Energy Authority clarifies. With a note released in recent days, the Arera has quantified the amount of the expense that we will pay to settle the arrears of others.
This is 2 euros per year, a very different figure compared to what was mentioned in the hoax circulated on WhatsApp. A handful of small ones but which are still discussed.
We remind you that these are the system charges of bills not paid by defaulting customers. Citizens therefore could be charged 2 euros more per year, a figure that will be a little higher for companies and large condominiums.
An event that emerged in mid-February, when the Authority with resolution 50/2018 allowed energy distributors to recover some credits through the bills of all consumers. Actually, like explained from the same resolution, it was not a question of the entire amount but only of upart of the general system costs required by law:
"In particular, the recognition identified by the Authority for distributors only is partial and relates only to general system charges already paid by them but not collected by those sellers with whom, in the face of the latter's default, distributors have interrupted the relative energy transport contract, thus effectively suspending the possibility of operating in the energy market for these subjects ".
But really all the blame goes to the sellers?
The system charges that we pay to our operator are in turn passed on to the energy distributors, who pay them to the cash desks of the Energy Services Operator. However, customers who do not pay their bills create economic damage both to their operators and to the distributors who advance the money, losing it if not received by the sellers.
For its part, the Energy Authority had to comply with the rulings of the Council of State and the Lombardy Regional Administrative Court. But with the latest note it further clarifies not only by quantifying the real expenditure that the citizen could face but also pointing the finger at the Government and Parliament, who were aware of the situation.
"In order to implement the mechanism designed to cover the non-cashed portion, it is envisaged that all end customers, regardless of the voltage level that characterizes their contracts (low voltage, medium voltage, high and very high voltage), should contribute. The first assessments indicate, with specific reference to the mechanism referred to in resolution 50/2018 / R / eel, a potential impact on the typical domestic customer of around € 2 per year. The impasse generated by the rulings of the administrative judge, as the Authority pointed out for some time in reports to Government e Parliament, as well as in public consultation documents, could find an appropriate and conclusive resolution only with a specific legislative intervention, with respect to which also l'Authority has concretely provided proposals and support to the competent subjects ".
The Area has tried to propose a system whereby both sellers and distributors are obliged to pay the general charges invoiced in full, regardless of the actual collection.
"How does the Authority allow itself to denigrate the sellers while acknowledging that it has been 'disabled' by the Council of State precisely for having transferred this arrears to the sellers, forcing them to replace the defaulting parties in the payment of parafiscal charges", Filippo Giusto is keen to specify, majority shareholder of Esperia spa, which gives the example of the RAI fee added to the bill: “The burden of the RAI fee has been added to the bills. Sellers take care to inform customers who do not pay the fee about any repercussions that may fall on the customer and, if the customer resists, the damage of the unpaid fee must be protected, in favor of RAI, by the Treasury. If the customer escapes, the virtuous customer does not pay the fee for them, and neither does the seller. It would be madness! Since, as clarified by the Council of State, the system charges are taxes, the reasoning is the same: every customer-taxpayer is required to pay and, if he is a tax evader, he must be hit in the public interest. Putting the tax evasion of others on the seller and now on the citizen is an abuse that has already been repeatedly censored ".
On the affair it is intervened also the National Consumers Union specifying:
“It is not just a question of amounts, which will still be higher, but also of greater injustice. If, in fact, the distributor acts in concession, and therefore it is a service that it is fair to remunerate, even if it should be the general taxation system that does so, in the case of sales companies this mechanism is equivalent to making consumers pay for the business risk. An absurd thing and contrary to the alleged free market that we would like to establish starting from 1 July 2019 ″ says Marco Vignola, head of the energy sector.
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The Union therefore asked for a meeting with the Minister of Economic Development Carlo Calenda and with the president of Arera, Bortoni, to examine possible alternative solutions.
Francesca Mancuso
