What is the “Emergency financial assistance for household electricity bills” program?
The “Emergency financial assistance for household electricity bills” Program concerns the provision of emergency financial aid through the State Budget to cover part of the increase in the cost of electricity consumption in household electricity bills of domestic consumers, which have been issued over the period from 1 December2021to31 May 2022, hereinafter referred to as the “reference period”.
The terms and conditions of the Program are analyzed in no. 3365 Joint Ministerial Decision of the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Environment and Energy and the Minister of State (Greek Government Gazette 2827/Β/06-06-2022), hereinafter referred to as “JMD”.
The total budget of the project amounts to two hundred and eighty million euros (€280,000,000,00).
Who are the beneficiaries of the financial aid?
The financial aid is provided to natural persons, tax residents of Greece, with an annual net family income after deduction of taxes, for tax year 2020, up to forty five thousand (45,000) euros. If tax year 2021 is the first time the taxpayer is submitting a tax return, the net family income after tax, for tax year 2021, shall be taken into account. The income data for the tax year 2020 shall be taken into account, as declared by1 May 2022. The details of the tax residence, as well as the income of the tax year 2021, shall be taken into account, as declared, by the time of the application for the financial aid of each beneficiary.
The beneficiaries of the aid are household electricity consumers, who are contracted to fluctuating electricity supply tariffs which are adjusted based on the wholesale price of electricity. The aid concerns the consumption account of the main residence of the beneficiaries, as well as the consumption account of the rented residence of the dependent children of the household who are studying in Greece.
For more information, please refer to Article 2 (3) and (4) of the JMD.
What happens if more than one beneficiaries declare the same power supply number?
In order to receive the financial aid, each electricity supply number for each month shall be declared by a single beneficiary. In the event that a power supply number for a month may be declared by two or more beneficiaries, the procedure for allocating the aid per beneficiary described below is followed:
In the event that a power supply number for a certain month has been declared by two or more natural persons, the TIN no. of the debtor is checked, to which each bill is issued by the energy supplier during that certain month. The beneficiary is the natural person who has the TIN to which the bill is issued and receives the aid for that bill. In the event that the TIN to which the bill is issued does not correspond to any of the applicants, the amount of the aid for that account shall be allocated equally to the applicants.
What is the start date of the period for lodging an application?
The launch of the application will take place on 17 June 2022. Applications for financial aid shall be submitted by 5 July 2022. Payment of the beneficiaries shall be made upon completion of the submission and examination of the applications.
What is the procedure for submitting an application?
The beneficiary, after being authenticated with their personal passwords – credentials of the General Secretariat for Information Systems of Public Administration of the Ministry of Digital Governance (taxisnet), in accordance with article 24 of Law 4727/2020 (A΄ 184), enters into the application and requests the receipt of financial aid (a) for household electricity bills related to the main residence of the beneficiary and (b) for household electricity bills related to the rented residence of the dependent children of the family who are studying in Greece. The applicant is required to confirm or update the details of their main residence and/or the rented residence of their children studying in Greece for the reference period. Any change in the main residence and/or the rented residence of their children studying in Greece, constitutes a solemn declaration to the tax authority and is pre-filled in the details of the income statement for the tax year 2022. In case the parent or guardian declares in Table 6 of the income statement for the tax year 2021 more than one residence with a corresponding number of power supply for the children in the family studying in Greece, the above procedure may be followed for the second or third residence present in Table 6. For more information on the procedure for submitting an application, you can refer to Article 2 (8) of the JMD. After updating their main residence details and/or the details of the rented residence of their children studying in Greece, the applicants complete and update their contact details and, in particular, their e-mail address, mobile phone number and personal bank account number. In addition, the applicant should consent to the transfer of the necessary electricity bills from the electricity suppliers to IS SMSA, for the processing and calculation of the subsidy. Finally, the applicant finalizes the application for the financial aid. It is possible to change the application information or cancel the application until the end of the application period outlined in the first paragraph of this article.
What is the method of calculating the financial aid?
The amount of aid per electricity bill shall be calculated as sixty percent (60%) of the positive balance resulting from subtracting the amounts of the discounts (a) granted by the special account named “Energy Transition Fund” of the sixty first article of Law 4839/2021 and (b) already granted by the electricity suppliers on the energy consumption of the bill, from the amount of the bill’s adjustment clause. The financial aid is granted to beneficiaries who have been burdened with an overall increase in the electricity bills issued within the reference period, according to the above method of calculation, of an amount which exceeds thirty (30) euros and may not exceed six hundred (600) euros per beneficiary. For more information, please refer to Article 3 of the JMD.
What is the procedure for granting financial aid and informing beneficiaries?
The amount of the financial aid is credited to the bank account of the beneficiary that has been declared in the application of article 2 of the JMC, by the public limited company of the Greek State “Information Society Technologies Single Member SA” (IS SMSA). For more information, please refer to Article 4 of the JMD.
How is communication and submission of queries carried out within the framework of the Program?
In order to help the users of the information system, a manual for the use of the electronic application and a help desk service for reporting/solving problems and providing instructions are available.
Amendment of the Joint Ministerial Decision Greek Government Gazette B’ 3366/30-06-2022
Joint Ministerial Decision Greek Government Gazette B’ 2827/07-06-2022
Customer service telephone number: +30 210 7000810