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More than 34% of entrepreneurs in Romania say they are downsizing their workforce due to soaring electricity and gas bills, and 8% are shutting up shop, according to a survey conducted by the National Council of Romania's Privately-owned SMEs (CNIPMMR) and published on Monday.
Thus, half of the entrepreneurs showed that their electricity bills surged by 50%, a third of them say theirs doubled and 15% showed that their bills soared by 200% and more. Also, 0.41% answered that their bills did not increase or they remained the same.
Regarding gas bills, 37% of entrepreneurs surveyed said that the value of the bills was 50% higher, 29% said that the bills had doubled and almost 20% said that the bill had increased by 200% and more; 5.4% said their gas bills did not increase or remained the same.
"When asked what measures they will take, 76% said they will cut down on or postpone investment, which has a huge impact on society and the economy, because it means a loss of competitiveness. Half say they will shrink business, 38% that they would postpone acquiring digital transformation applications, even for one in three entrepreneurs this period will mean downsizing the workforce. Also, 8% say they will shut up shop. So practically one in 10 companies will close down moving forward," CNIPMMR Chairman Florin Jianu told a news conference.
At the same time, in case of reduction or closure of the company's business, 42% of the entrepreneurs will lay off 1-9 employees, 11% will lay off 10-49 employees, 1.3% - between 50 and 250 employees and 1.3% - 250 employees, while 39% will not lay off their staff.
Asked if they have increased or will increase the prices for their products or services moving forward, 17% of the entrepreneurs say that they will increase by more than 30%, 42% said that they will increase them by 10-30%, 19% say that they will increase by less than 10%, and 20% say they have not hiked prices and will not do so.
"The market does not accept these price increases, so production will fall and we will import more, which means inflation and declining purchasing power, and the money will go abroad. After two years of a pandemic, we have a population that ill affords price increases at the moment; one million people have been furloughed due to the pandemic, the population is impoverished, the economy is weakened. We need to identify where all this money we pay on bills goes and those companies that make unfair profits or profiteer should be taxed 90%," Jianu said.
According to Jianu, some SMEs should be included among vulnerable consumers.
The survey was conducted February 2-14 and 2,260 entrepreneurs responded.
"Of these, 56% are dealing in production, 21.9% in trade and 21.5% in services. That shows that the impact does not affect one area or another, but all. 98.5% say they feel the price hikes," said Jianu.
In conclusion, 80% of entrepreneurs say that the market needs to be regulated throughout the energy chain and set a maximum commission cap at 10-15%, and two thirds say that urgent support measures are needed for the development of their own energy units, including financing of SMEs for the installation of photovoltaic panels.
Other proposed measures are unblocking the Electric Up programme and urgently providing funds and the issuance of vouchers for the purchase of electricity, gas and fuel.
CNIPMMR proposes in the energy area the establishment of the SME Prosumer programme under which companies can acquire electricity production capacities of below 400 kW for their own consumption.
The total value of the grants would be 800 million euros, and the money would come from the Modernisation Fund. The maximum value per project would be 300,000 euros, of which 200,000 euros in grants and 100,000 euros in own contributions.
Eligible for the programme could be 4,000 beneficiaries, Agerpres informs.
