The government's promised electricity subsidy to households in southern Sweden is delayed until February, and before then both the December and January bills must be paid.
In order to provide some relief with the expenses, the Social Democrats have proposed an electricity bill emergency which would make it possible for companies and households throughout Sweden to split the electricity bills and postpone parts of the payments for a time.
"In time to be scoreless"
But according to Daniel Liljeberg, state secretary to Ebba Busch (KD) at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, it is not possible to get an emergency electricity bill in place before it has time to run out of points.
- The electricity subsidy is paid out in February and then the need for an emergency electricity bill will no longer be so great.
In addition, it would mean that the state lends money to companies and households, and the state must charge for that lending.
Liljeberg, who today informed the finance committee about how the government views the proposal, also sees administrative ambiguities with it.
- The electricity trading companies would be the ones who actually administer government credit.
It is a problem in itself, which must be solved somehow.
So far we don't have a ready solution for it.
Damberg (S): "Disappointed"
The Social Democrats' Mikael Damberg is disappointed by what he considers to be the government's lack of ambition to proceed with the proposal.
To justify it with the fact that the state should avoid taking credit risks, he doesn't care much.
- The whole point is that the state must take a greater risk in this situation because the state has not delivered the electricity support that was promised.
The chairman of the finance committee, Edward Riedl (M), says after the meeting that the committee now needs a few days to analyze the government office's information.
- This is much more difficult than you might first think.
We have not arrived at any decision or announcement today, he says.