A Hike in Electricity Prices Expected

No good news for companies in Poland because of an expected hike in electricity prices. Business owners should brace themselves for a drastic increase of the price of electric energy. Some industry experts suspect electricity prices may go up by as much as fifty percent! If this prediction comes true, this will be a big shock for entrepreneurs, not to mention average consumers. Media in Poland keep asking whether the government is going to do something about the upcoming hike and take some steps to protect energy recipients.

Why will Poles have to pay more for electricity? All is due to the rising cost of coal (80 percent of electric power produced in the country comes from coal power stations) as well as EU carbon emissions price. The latter reached a 10-year high this year. Higher cost of energy will translate into increased cost of production of goods, so companies will be forced either to cut other costs or, what is more probable, change the prices of their products.

Another industry under pressure will be transportation. Consumers may expect higher prices of train tickets. It was recently speculated that some rail companies can receive electricity bills 80 percent higher than today. The hike in electricity prices is expected to have big impact on investment figures as well.

The government is urged to do something to cushion the upcoming blow. There are plans to prepare a compensation scheme that will cover some of the cost of the price hike for small and medium companies as well as certain institution, such as hospitals, hospices and other care facilities. However, the draft of the state budget for 2019 does not set aside any funds for this purpose. The Minister of Energy, Krzysztof Tchórzewski, said that next year the government intends to spend around four billion PLN on compensations.