The average price of energy in the free market in November was 44.33 euro cents per kilowatt-hour (kW/hour), while Arera’s estimate for the developed hedge market was 28.29 cents per kilowatt-hour. There is a 56.7 percent difference in the pockets of those who are not protected. The data emerges from the survey on electricity prices announced by Istat today.
A hot topic is the cost of energy. Just the day before yesterday, the Council of Ministers confirmed the end of the protected market and therefore the forced transition of users to the free market, and set an exemption only for ‘vulnerable families’ or those in economic difficulty. There are two dates to mark on the calendar: January 10 for gas, April 1, 2024 for electricity.
How to read data
Therefore, is the enhanced protection regime beneficial? When you look at the statistics data, it seems so, but since the survey only focuses on the last month, it is necessary to be careful when interpreting the results. If we consider a wider time period, we realize that the issue is more complex. As my colleague Cesare Treccarichi recently explained in Today, in 2019 and 2020, before the massive decline in consumption due to Covid and the price increases recorded in 2022, according to Arera data, the average price of the advanced protection service before taxes was: approximately the price charged in the free market It was 13% and 24% lower. However, the trend changed in 2021 and is completely reversed in 2022.
In fact, all types of utilities mentioned last year had lower prices in the free market, despite savings of over 37 percent. In short, the trend fluctuates. Even if the situation seems to have reversed in November, as Istat data shows, even data for the first six months of 2023 (not yet available in detail) may indicate the complacency of the free market.
Unc: “Impressive results, 433 euro Meloni tax on energy”
Of course, it is necessary to be smarter and more cunning to take advantage of the right offer in the free market. This is why consumer associations have been asking for weeks for the strengthened protection regime to be extended by at least a year; but the government physically cannot do this without the EU’s green light. According to the National Union of Consumers (UNC), Istat’s results on electricity prices in the protected and free market are “sensational and shameful”: the difference between average prices shows that those on the free market “currently pay 56% more, 7% more” into the pockets of families a “melon tax” that imposes a burden of 433 euros per year.
UNC says data from the Institute of Statistics “proves the urgency of expanding the protected electricity and gas market.” A typical family consuming 2700 kW/h per year and with a committed power of 3 kW, free market, 433 euros more on an annual basis than those in the higher protection category, hence a tax we can call Melon, which the government has never believed in and wanted beyond the position of some individual majority parties a tax. expansion of the protected market.”
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Source: Today IT
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
