ZAGREB, 19 July 2021 - Croatians who use natural gas for heating will be paying 25 percent more for their gas bills by 2026 at the latest, by which time a fee for greenhouse gas emissions would also be put in place, Jutarnji List newspaper said on Monday.

This scenario is included in the recently published European Commission's energy strategy Fit for 55, which aims to phase out the use of fossil fuels in transport and industry, as well as in the building sector which is one of the biggest CO2 emitters and polluters, the newspaper said.

The European Union plans to do away with gas heating by 2050 and the Commission's proposal is going in that direction and is expected to enter into force in 2026, Professor Neven Duić of the University of Zagreb Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture was quoted as saying.

"Big consumers, such as electricity producers, are already required to buy CO2 emission rights. This means that small consumers who use electricity for heating are already paying the CO2 emission fee and are being discriminated against compared to consumers who are not paying this fee because they use natural gas," Duić said.

The Commission's calculation about the need to increase natural gas prices by 25 percent for Croatian consumers who use natural gas for heating is included in the proposal to amend the rules on emissions trading. The proposal is part of the Fit for 55 strategies, according to which Croatians currently pay 5 cents per kilowatt-hour for gas heating and will be paying nearly 9 cents once the CO2 emissions fee is in place, Jutarnji List said. 

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ZAGREB, 18 January, 2021 - The government on Monday decided to exempt households in Sisak-Moslavina County, hit by a devastating earthquake on 29 December, from paying electricity and heating bills for January, February and March as well as from paying the TV licence fee.

Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Tomislav Ćorić said that in January, February and March the state-owned HEP power company would not charge for electricity people whose houses were damaged by the quake and that it would also not charge them for connecting their temporary housing units and later reconnecting their rebuilt homes to the power grid.

As for people who use the services of a power supplier other than HEP, they will not be charged for distribution and transmission costs, said the minister.

The same measure will apply to households in the case of heating bills.

In a Twitter post after the government session, Ćorić said that he had called on other companies to join in the write-off of utility bills since a part of the households in the quake-hit area use their services.

Answering a reporter's question, he said that four companies provided power in Sisak-Moslavina County, including HEP, and that three operated in the quake-hit areas.

Quake-affected households exempt from paying TV licence fee 

The government also decided that in order to help alleviate the consequences of the 29 December earthquake, the HRT public broadcaster should not collect the TV licence fee from quake-hit households for the first three months of this year.

HRK 25m in emergency aid for repair of county and local roads

The government also decided to allocate HRK 25 million in emergency aid for the repair of county and local roads in Sisak-Moslavina County, and the amount will be secured by the HC road operator.

According to preliminary estimates, damage caused to state, county and local roads in Sisak-Moslavina County totals HRK 57 million, without VAT, said Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Oleg Butković.

HRK 1.5 mn for fodder

Agriculture Minister Marija Vučković said that her ministry would allocate emergency aid in the amount of HRK 1.5 million for the purchase of fodder for the next 30 days in order to enable the continuation of animal husbandry in the quake-hit areas.

She said the biggest problem at present was the lack of concentrate and compound feed.