Electricity prices frozen, gas rises

The price hike, said a spokesman, will mean that householders will be paying an average of a further 1.44 euros a month for their gas supply. He added that the price of a bottle of butane gas went up as of yesterday by 6 percent. An average sized bottle of 12.5 kilogrammes after tax will now cost around 13.87 euros, 68 cents more than previously.

The official State Bulletin reported that for the 20 million or so electricity users who pay government controlled tariffs rather than the commercial rates of private supply companies, there will be no change in their bills because Ministry of Industry technicians have apparently benefited from lower costs in one area of providing electricity only to put them up in another.

There are around 17 million customers who have an electricity supply of less than 10 kilowatts, enabling them to take advantage of low rates. To this number can be added a further 3 million who because of their economic or social circumstances - such as having particularly large families, or all members of the same household on the dole - receive subsidies to help pay their electricity bills. This latter group will not have their power costs put up by Central Government until 2013.

Meanwhile, those electricity users who have chosen to sign up with companies operating on the free market where tariffs are not the responsibility of the government, will by way of contrast be facing price hikes. The calculation of tariff revisions are outlined in the contracts which clients sign before using the service.

Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian said yesterday that the government's putting the price of gas up by 4.1 percent is justified by the fact that the market price has increaesd by 10.65 percent.