Program na podporu na zvýšené náklady na zemní plyn a elektřinu II

Programme to support the increased cost of natural gas and electricity II

In our Subsidy Alert last week, we informed you about the basic parameters of the support for the increased costs of natural gas and electricity due to the exceptionally sharp rise in their prices.

The Minister of Industry announced that the programme would now apply to all sectors of the economy (but, according to the information available to us, still with a few exceptions, such as the extraction and processing of coal, oil and gas, refined petroleum products and tobacco products), in addition to the previously announced agriculture, fisheries, forestry and manufacturing industries.

The Minister of Industry's statement also indicates that enterprises in the above-mentioned excluded sectors, enterprises that will be subject to the introduction of the windfall profits tax and enterprises falling into the category of customers with capped electricity and gas prices are not eligible for support.

If you are not in the manufacturing sector but are dealing with a price spike, you may also be eligible. For completeness, let us reiterate that the level of support is to range between 30-70% depending on the category of applicant and the amount of eligible costs is to be set as the difference between this year's actual (alternatively, average) price and twice last year's price, with the subsidy for September and October 2022 covering a maximum of 70% of the take-up in the same period in 2021.

Applicants will have to meet a number of other conditions, in addition to the usual ones (not being bankrupt/executed/liquidated or not being an unreliable payer and not being in arrears with tax authorities/health insurance companies etc.), including, for example, the condition that the recipient's management has not, at the time of the application for aid, fully and not only temporarily waived any increase in its remuneration (including all components of remuneration) and variable remuneration for the current financial year, or received any direct or indirect compensation for this waiver (from all entities in the group).

If this is an area of interest to you, or if you are considering preparing a grant application and would like assistance, please contact the authors of this article or the EY advisory team with whom you normally work.

Authors:

Martin Hladký

Martin Veverka