No economic policy, but madness! Chamber of Deputies Karel Havlicek (ANO) and Transport Minister Martin Kupka clashed over the government’s decision to roll back tariffs for green energy to reduce the budget deficit on CNN Prima News on Sunday. Five coalitions defended the government’s actions.
Teresia Tomankova’s party on CNN Prima News
Description: Karel Havlicek (ANO) at the party show on CNN Prima News.
According to Kupka, the government has no power to choose. “We were able to change the situation in a fundamental way, we were able to help households and businesses, energy prices fell,” he said, defending the government’s controversial decision to make households and businesses pay for renewable energy sources again from the start of 2024. The government had earlier promised to transfer the responsibilities to the state.
Havlíček protested to Minister Kubek that the government was therefore untruthfully lying. “That’s why people don’t trust you. You try to sugarcoat it a little, but the government lies beyond belief. This is not economic policy, it is insanity!” said Havlicek v Party.
- PPP
- Vice President of PS PCR
Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura (ODS) announced this week that the government will “cut” 38 billion in subsidies for electricity transmission and distribution costs to people and companies this year. “For budget reasons, taxpayers (!) can’t afford it, and we have chosen other priorities in the budget over public subsidies, for example, regulated components of electricity or gas prices,” Stanjura said. That means the government will end legal support for renewable energy sources to “people and companies”. This will save the government another 17 billion. From January, people and companies will pay approximately 600 kroner for each megawatt hour. A household with an average consumption of 2.5 MWh per year will once again start paying around 125 crowns a month, as it did until the end of September 2022.
Kupka recalls another point of view – the growth of mandatory spending also affected the decision of the government. “It’s as simple as that. Decision-making is very complicated because we are affected by the growth of mandatory expenses. If you find that they have grown, the state budget spends more than its income on these mandatory expenses, and we have to react to that,” he added.
Author: Natalya Prozowska
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