EPCG CONTINUES WITH DISCOUNTS FOR REGULAR PAYERS

At its last session in 2021, the Board of Directors of EPCG made the decision to continue with a 12.5 percent discount regarding the total amount of electricity bill for households that regularly pay their bills during the first six months of the next year, with the total cost for these purposes of about 4.5 million Euros taken over entirely by EPCG. The Board granted the citizens of Pljevlja, i.e. customers from the "household" category, an additional 10 percent discount on active energy until the end of the heating season, i.e. until the end of the first quarter of 2022, taking into account Pljevlja's huge contribution to ensuring energy stability in the conditions of energy and COVID crisis, and in order to reduce the level of air pollution in that city.

When creating a discount policy for regular electricity payers in Montenegro, EPCG seeks to import two important factors: taking into account the difficulties faced by citizens and the need to generate the revenue from electricity delivered.

This, of course, is not easy to achieve, especially in the context of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, so we are implemented, in cooperation with CEDIS, starting on May 31, 2021, a policy of additional discounts for regular payers, along with traditional activities, the action "Share the burden" and the prize game "Golden Team".

Pursuant to this policy, all households that had a debt of EUR 0.00 to EPCG on May 31, 2021, automatically received a membership in the "Golden Team" and, in addition to the standard 13 percent discount on active energy (first item in the bill), received additional 13 percent discount on CEDIS services.

Thus, for example, a household whose electricity bill amounted to 60.00 Euros, excluding VAT, instead of the previous 3.80 Euros during the previous months, ending on December 31 of this year, receives a discount of 7.35 Euros.

Also, the institutions that stand the greatest burden of the fight to suppress the pandemic (hospitals, health centers, kindergartens, primary and secondary schools) during 2021, achieved a discount of 10 percent, and the economy 3 percent. In the name of a discount for regular customers from the category of "households" and the economy and institutions of special importance, EPCG allocated 7 million Euros in 2021.

These actions, i.e. discounts for customers, certainly burden the business of our company by generating revenues lower than projected, but we, starting from the commitment to operate socially responsibly, believed that we should help citizens at least during this phase of the pandemic, especially that EPCG, as a state-owned company, conducts its business activities within the borders of Montenegro and, in this regard, should not be indifferent to the problems faced by citizens.

On the other hand, the campaign had positive effects on the business of EPCG, as it affected the increase in the number of regular payers.