While the authorities claim that despite frequent increases in the price of electricity for households in Serbia, its price is still among the lowest in Europe, consumers in our country are faced with the fact that since September of last year, if you include the correction that will occur on November 1 , electricity went up three times by as much as 24 percent. And that’s not the end because, according to the agreement between the Government of Serbia and the International Monetary Fund, in May of next year there will be a new increase in the price of electricity by eight percent.
As a reminder, from the first day of next month, the price of a kilowatt hour for individual consumers in Serbia will cost 10.26 dinars, and if VAT is included, that amount will be 14.29 dinars.
After the price of electricity for households in Serbia was corrected in September of last year, for an average consumption of 450 kilowatts, citizens had to pay a bill of about 3,700 dinars.
Fourteen months later, the bill that will be settled in November this year for the consumption of 450 kilowatts will amount to about 4,600 dinars, which is 24% increase.
For a country where the median salary is only 66,000 dinars and the average pension is lower than the amount of the minimum consumer basket, an additional 900 dinars per month, compared to the period before September 2022, represents a severe blow to the household budget of households that generate income of that amount.
Households that are forced to use electricity to heat their apartments and houses during the winter season will suffer the biggest blow to their household budget.
Their bills will increase between 930 and 1,500 dinars for consumption ranging from 1,600 to over 1,800 kilowatt hours.
Until the latest electricity price increase, the amount of the bill for average consumption was about 4,300 dinars, and those who are forced to use electricity for heating during the winter season will pay about 5,800 dinars per month.
During this year, electricity consumers in our country have already faced two price increases. The first occurred on January 1, when the price of electricity for households increased by eight percent. The price increase also occurred on May 1, when the price of electricity for individual consumers also increased by eight percent.
As a reminder, in its report published at the beginning of the summer, the International Monetary Fund pointed out that from November 1, citizens of Serbia can expect a new increase in the price of electricity by eight percent and gas by 10 percent, and that new price increases with the same percentages will follow in May 2024.
The IMF explained such a request by the fact that “a further increase in electricity and gas prices is necessary in November of this year and during 2024 in order to eliminate all budget subsidies to state energy companies until the end of the arrangement with the IMF and to finance much-needed investment spending in the coming years.” years”.
By the way, the price of electricity will rise on November 1 despite the fact that representatives of the authorities have repeatedly said the opposite.
As a reminder, the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, once said that the Government is still talking with the International Monetary Fund about the price of electricity and “will try to ensure that there is no price increase or that it is minimal”.
Previously, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić pointed out that if the situation with energy sources remains favorable, “there will be no need to increase the price of electricity”, and then the Minister of Mining and Energy, Dubravke Đedović, stated that she hopes that the prices of electricity and gas will not change until the end of the year.
However, it should also be said that Minister Đedović later contradicted herself by saying that “Serbia must implement energy reforms and that they include an increase in the price of electricity and gas”.
The new increase in the price of electricity in Serbia was met with vigorous opposition from consumer associations, which are of the opinion that there is no justified reason based on economic logic to raise the price of electricity in the conditions of the economic crisis and the otherwise low standard of living of the citizens of Serbia.
A big problem for consumers in Serbia is that the increase in the price of electricity is not the only one that has occurred in our country.
From November 1, gas prices will also increase, the price of diesel is at a record high, and excise duties on a number of products have been increased.
What does not go well for consumers in Serbia is that in the coming period there may be an increase in the price of electricity for the economy.
Then what happens every time in such situations would certainly follow, and businessmen would increase the prices of their products and services, which would make citizens face a new wave of price increases, reports Danas.
