Passage of vulnerable consumer law, one of the Liberals' priorities in the new parliamentary session

One of the National Liberal Party's priorities in the new parliamentary session, amid growing energy prices, is the passage of the vulnerable consumer law that could benefit more than 400,000 families across the country, as well as various companies, deputy floor leader of the Liberal senators Eugen Tapu-Nazare announced. "In May the Senate adopted, as the first notified body, the government's bill on the vulnerable energy consumer, and the act will now enter debates in the Chamber of Deputies," Tapu-Nazare said in a statement. He explained that the state aid that will come into force this winter will be granted as a fixed amount to offset heating costs, but not less than 10% of the reference value, which is 250 lei per month for natural gas heating, 500 lei per month for electricity and 160 lei per month for solid or oil fuels. "Through this law, part of the profits of energy companies will return to vulnerable consumers, who are defined as single persons whose average monthly income does not exceed 1,445 lei or families whose average monthly income is a maximum of 810 lei/person, as well as people who, for health reasons, either need electrical appliances to stay alive or healthy, or have issues that impede their mobility or access to information. The vulnerable consumer law was supposed to be adopted eight years ago, when the gradual liberalization of the energy and natural gas market was regulated, but it was only put in the approval circuit by the Liberal-led government, at the beginning of this year," the Liberal deputy Senate floor leader said. Eugen Tapu-Nazare mentioned that, along with this regulatory act, the government is considering other ways of supporting middle-income families with footing the energy bill, including by compensating a part of the costs with funds from the state budget. AGERPRES (RO - author: Gabriel Apetrii, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)