Czech government must make up shortfall if it fails to cut energy support funding, Fiala says

If the government fails to reduce the amount needed from the state budget for support for supported energy sources (POZE) by changing the law, it will have to make up the shortfall next year. Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) said this during yesterday’s parliamentary interpellations, in response to a question from SPD MP Lucie Šafránková. She asked him mainly about discrepancies highlighted by the National Budgetary Council at the beginning of October.

The draft budget provides for 8.5 billion crowns and, according to the National Budgetary Council, the government appears to be counting on changes to the laws governing the calculation of support. The government has already presented the changes. Šafránková described the budget, among other things, as unrealistic and completely non-transparent. Prime Minister Fiala defended the budget, pointing out, among other things, that the disputed items account for between half a percent and one percent of the budget.

„What remains open, and I’m not hiding this, is the payments for POZE, where the budget assumes a certain legislative amendment that we want to make in the near future,“ the prime minister said.

„But I’m saying openly here—if we don’t manage it, we’ll have to provide the additional funding during the year. I’ve never hidden that, and neither has the finance minister; that’s simply how it is,“ he added. He noted that payments for support for supported energy sources will not increase next year for either individuals or businesses.

The change to the rules for reducing the amount allocated from the budget to support supported energy sources is part of MPs’ amendments to the Energy Act, which the Chamber of Deputies advanced to its third reading last week. The amendments will be decided on at that stage. Among other things, the government wants to assess the profitability of operating solar power plants more accurately and on an individual basis, particularly those commissioned in 2009 and 2010. Subsidies will be provided only after that assessment.

Last year, the state provided 25.3 billion crowns in subsidies for the operation of supported energy sources, according to data from the Electricity Market Operator (OTE). This was the lowest amount since 2010, almost 14 billion crowns less than the year before.