Distributors who will not read the meters within six months in the case of electricity and three months for natural gas will be required to pay customers a compensation of 100 lei, announced on Wednesday evening the vice president of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), Zoltan Nagy-Bege, stating that when they do not read a million meters, the amount they will have to pay will reach 100 million lei.

He stressed out that two changes to the electricity and natural gas distribution standards, which provide for such measures, are currently under public debate, given that the fines provided by law are not very high.

“We have in public debate two changes to the distribution standards for electricity and natural gas and we will oblige the distributors who have the task of reading the meters, because the distributors read the meters, which exceed this term of 6 months in the case of electricity and 3 months at natural gas, …automatically to pay a compensation for those customers who have not read the meters. For the compensation…our proposal is of 100 lei. I presume that in the moment that they would not read one million meters they will have to pay 100 million lei, it will cost them and they will be worried about it,” said the vice-president of ANRE, at Digi 24, according to Agerpres.

He added that every consumer has the right to read the meter and send the index of the meter every month, and the supplier is obliged to bill.

“I want to tell you something very important: every consumer has the right to read the meter and send the index of the meter every month. On the invoice there must be a dedicated self-reading number, a time interval not shorter than 5 days and there is usually a longer interval in which any customer can call, identify and give the index. This can also be done through the application provided by most providers. In the moment that consumers communicate the index, the supplier is obliged to invoice,” he explained.