Gas bills, terrible news for Italians: it will happen in the next few days

Gas bills, terrible news for Italians: it will happen in the next few days. Unfortunately, we are still facing increases and out-of-market prices

The international situation does not allow for sighs of relief from the point of view of payments. If they saved anything in October, the sting will come in November.

Rising gas bills (AnsaFoto)

The war in Ukraine leaves no respite to the European economic context. The latest developments that have seen Poland (indirectly) implicated have also increased the degree of tension in international markets. Beyond the very significant social crisis that such a conflict causes in the lives of millions of people, even those who are far away suffer certain consequences.

Obviously, we are talking about economic implications, with the increases we have been dealing with for several months now. Electricity and gas bills have skyrocketed and with the onset of winter things will only get worse. The news of a fall in energy prices in October, for example, should not calm us down, on the contrary, it could create more than one problem for us in a few days. Yes, because at the end of November we will be faced with rather heavy bills.

Gas bills, the worst situation after the savings in October: it will be a very difficult month of November

Gas price increases in November (AnsaFoto)

All those who fall under the “enhanced protection service” customers, with the tariffs established by Arera (the Energy and Networks Authority) have paid less for gas over the past month.

Among the reasons, in addition to a small reduction in the tax linked to the government’s safeguard intervention, there is certainly also the climatic factor. Compared to last year, October was practically a summer month, with high temperatures in most of Italy and days that seemed to belong to very different latitudes.

This has made it possible to reduce consumption, for example heating, particularly in northern Italy. Over the two-month period September-October 2022, gas bills were down substantially from budget for a total of 7.4 million customers, all registered for the “enhanced protection service” and paying established packages by the Arera.

According to an article in La Repubblica, an example of a bill from this year had a value of 42 euros. An amount lower than that of the same period of 2021, when the same customer ended up paying an amount of 64 euros.

Everything is precisely linked to consumption, which has gone from 52.27 Scm last year to 22.11 Scm today. On the contrary, the cost of the raw material has increased by 114%. Last year it was 0.71 euros, in October 2022 we went to 1.523 euros.

As mentioned, the government has done its part by allocating relief on system charges, excise duties and VAT. The latter currently weighs 5% in the bill, while in 2021 it amounted to 22%. Unfortunately, however, we cannot breathe a sigh of relief as substantial increases are expected in November. The problem will not only be related to falling temperatures (shorter days after the introduction of solar time) but also to rising commodity prices. The war leaves no respite and the markets continue to be affected.