Compensating businesses for rising electricity and gas costs would put an unbearable burden on the country’s budget, Lithuanian Finance Minister Gintare Skaiste has said, adding that the majority of the European Union countries are only providing support for households.
“At present, the majority of countries provide support only to households since businesses consume both electricity and gas in much bigger volumes compared to households,” Skaiste said.
“Therefore, compensating businesses would indeed imply an unbearable burden for the budget, and such measures are not applied on a broad scale anywhere,” she added.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has called on the government to not only provide energy subsidies for households but also for businesses.
Large Lithuanian companies have also asked the government to provide subsidies for electricity and gas, fix at least part of the electricity price and issue about 1 billion euros in easy loans to enable businesses to purchase their own energy sources. (LRT/Business World Magazine)
