From April 1, applications for the Grant Program for Reducing Gas Costs for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Begin

As part of the package of measures of the Government of the Republic of Croatia to mitigate the rise in energy prices, the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, in cooperation with HAMAG-BICRO, is launching the Grant Program for Reducing Gas Costs for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises.

The program is intended for micro, small, and medium enterprises with an annual gas consumption at individual billing measurement points of up to 10 GWh. These are small value grants (de minimis grants) for reducing gas consumption bills by 15 lipa per kWh of gas consumed. The total projected amount of this government measure is 600 million kuna.

Entrepreneurs will apply for the grant through an online application that will be available on the HAMAG-BICRO agency’s website starting April 1, 2022, at 8:00 AM. The application process will be simple and quick and fully digitized. To enter the application, it will be necessary to enter the OIB and the number of one billing measurement point. Most of the data will be pre-entered into the application, and entrepreneurs will need to verify their validity, enter the amount of de minimis grants used so far, provide GDPR consent, and submit the application.

After entering the required data, a decision on the grant allocation and a voucher for the total grant amount, determined according to the reference consumption of each user, will be created. The decision on the grant allocation will be sent to the entrepreneur (grant user) via email, and the voucher will be delivered to the gas supplier. The entire process is devoid of paper documentation.

The grant implementation program will be conducted in such a way that the entrepreneur pays the amount stated on the bill each month, while the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development pays the subsidized amount directly to the gas supplier. The proportional monthly subsidized amount will be automatically deducted from the entrepreneur’s voucher, concluding with the bill for March 2023, or earlier if the entire grant defined by the grant allocation decision is utilized.

Applicants against whom bankruptcy proceedings have been initiated and/or proceedings have been initiated against the applicant or authorized person, or a conviction has been issued for participation in a criminal organization or for acts of corruption, will not be entitled to the grant.

Eligibility for the subsidy will not be verified concerning whether the applicant has debts to the gas supplier, nor whether they are in a blockade, and the subsidy will be paid through a voucher usable only for gas. In other words, there is no possibility for the subsidy to be used for any other purpose than reducing the cost of supplied gas.