Parliament is considering the first version of the draft state budget for 2022. Giorgi Kakauridze, the Deputy Minister of Finance, at the sitting of one of the committees, in response to the question of the deputies, notes that it is not expedient to subsidize the electricity tariff for all population.
"People who do not belong to a vulnerable group should pay the tariff themselves and they must not be funded from the budget. The subsidy means paying taxes paid by other people," said Giorgi Kakauridze.
From January 1, 2021, electricity tariffs were increased in Georgia. In particular, according to the decision of the GNERC, from January 1, the commercial tariff for electricity has increased by an average of 11-13 tetri, and the consumer tariff by 3.5 tetri - at each stage. Because of this, the government decided to subsidize both consumer and commercial tariffs, but under certain conditions.
In particular, businesses operating in food production were allowed to subsidize the increased tariff difference by 50%. As for the consumer tariff, the citizens who consumed up to 300 kWh per month, the gov’t would fully cover the difference between the current and increased tariffs.
