Are suppliers obliged to adjust the advance if prices fall? “Then also when price goes up” | inland

Party leader Melissa Depraetere (Vooruit) reiterated Vooruit’s wish today during question time in the House to oblige energy suppliers to reduce advance invoices now that energy prices are falling on the wholesale markets. She is also submitting a bill for this. According to Depraetere, families are currently not feeling that the prices for electricity and gas are falling because the advances are not following.

“However, those invoices can already be reduced today,” she says. “If prices rise, the suppliers immediately follow up with these advances, but of course they don’t do that the other way around. People need to feel the difference now, not just at the final bill.”

CD&V and Open Vld are also in favour, it turned out during the question hour. “The advances must decrease on the initiative of the energy suppliers and not at the request of households. Families and entrepreneurs are not free banks,” said CD&V party leader Servais Verherstraeten. According to Open Vld’er Christian Leysen, it is now “up to the suppliers to reduce the advances”.

According to Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open Vld), the government is closely monitoring whether the invoices are now effectively falling in price. “Citizens cannot play the financiers of the energy companies.” According to the Prime Minister, Minister of Energy Tinne Van der Straeten (Green) and Secretary of State for Consumer Protection Alexia Bertrand (Open Vld) will soon discuss this with the suppliers.

De Croo also emphasized that a draft law by Van der Straeten was voted on last year, allowing citizens to refuse and adjust proposed advance invoices.

Marc Van den Bosch, general manager of FEBEG, the sector federation of energy suppliers, does not react unfavorably to the proposal, but does make a few comments.

“If the government wants to, we will talk about it. However, it is not the case that suppliers deliberately charge customers too much in advance. The intention is always to have the final invoice come out as close to zero as possible. The fact is that a large group of customers still have to pay at the end of the ride. At the same time, volatile prices currently make it difficult to calculate these advances very precisely. If you only want to see your real monthly consumption billed, you already have the option of opting for monthly billing.”

“When it comes to an obligation, one must also realize that it has to work both ways,” says Van den Bosch. “In that case, the advance not only automatically goes down when prices fall, but also goes up again when prices rise. Moreover, a monthly adjustment does not seem like a good idea to me anyway. Many customers prefer stability. With an advance that changes every month, a customer never knows where he stands. If you want to go for such an obligation, it seems more realistic to go to a quarterly adjustment.”

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