The Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, in cooperation with HAMAG – BICRO, has launched a grant program to reduce natural gas costs for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. The program is intended for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises with annual gas consumption at an individual metering point up to 10 GWh. The grants are of small value and are intended to reduce the gas consumption bill by 15 lipas per kWh of gas consumed.
Detailed Instructions for Applicants have been published on the HAMAG – BICRO website, and entrepreneurs can apply for grant through the online application, which is also available on the HAMAG – BICRO website. The process is simple, fast, and fully digitalized. To enter the application, it is necessary to enter the personal identification number (in further text OIB) and the number of one billing metering point. After that, entrepreneurs need to determine the validity of automatically pre-entered data, enter the amount of grant used so far, give GDPR consent and apply.
After the entrepreneur enters the necessary data, a decision on receiving the grant and a voucher for the total grant will be created. The grant is determined according to the reference consumption of one beneficiary. An entrepreneur receives the Grant Decision, and the gas supplier receives a voucher. It should be noted that the whole procedure is paper-free.
Therefore, the grant program is implemented in such a way that the entrepreneur (beneficiary) pays the amount stated on the invoice every month, and the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development pays the subsidized amount directly to the gas supplier. Thus, the entrepreneur will be automatically deducted a proportional monthly subsidized amount from his voucher. In this way, entrepreneurs will receive grants until the end of March 2023, or earlier, if they use the entire grant defined by the decision to grant support.
Entrepreneurs who wish to apply for the grant and have been declared bankrupt or convicted of participating in a criminal organization or acts of corruption will not be eligible for the grant.
It is also important to know that the eligibility for a subsidy will not be checked against whether the applicant has debts to the gas supplier or is blocked. The subsidy will be paid only through a voucher usable for gas. Therefore, there is no possibility to use the subsidy for any purpose other than reducing the cost of gas supplied.
For all additional information related to this Program, entrepreneurs can contact the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development via e-mail.
