The endeavour of the Government, referenced as the „utility bill cut”, has triggered fierce reactions both in the media and within the sector. With the article we set out to provide a short, unbiased summary of this package of measures and its impacts. The analysis is based on REKK’s own research. In the interest of a quick analysis, we had to accept a number of regulatory and data deficiencies. Nonetheless, our analysis will point out several important interrelations and changes.

With regard to the utility expenditures of households, natural gas and electricity prices do not count as high, neither compared to the region, nor to the wider World, despite the extremely high VAT rate of 27%. Considering the dynamics of price changes, especially in the case of electricity, the failure of the regulatory authority can be detected for 2009-2010: universal service prices could have been reduced in a market environment characterised by decreasing prices. The utility bills of Hungarian households paid for energy consumption as a ratio of the annual household expenditures is not high within the region, but high in a wider European context.