€2.2m in energy supports paid to farmers and agri-businesses

Scheme, which offers support with increased electricity or natural gas costs, has been extended to 31 May

Horticulture

20 April 2023

More than €2.2 million has been paid out to farmers and agri-businesses that have made a claim under the Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS), which offers support with increased electricity or natural gas costs.

This figure comes from Revenue, which revealed that by 13 April, 27,763 businesses across all sectors had registered for the scheme.

It said 18,000 businesses have fully completed the claims process and 5,087 have partially completed the claims process.

Of those registrations, 2,206 were made from the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector, and 1,724 of those claims have been approved for the measure.

This comes with news that the European Commission has approved Ireland’s State aid application to extend the scheme to 31 May 2023. Other enhancements to the scheme include a reduction in the energy unit cost threshold from 50% to 30% required to qualify for the scheme, and an increase in the level of relief available from 40% to 50% in respect of claims for the period from 1 March to 31 May 2023.

Revenue has updated its TBESS guidance to include details of these enhancements and the changes Revenue is making to the TBESS claims process. The relevant legislative provisions will be commenced in due course.

The TBESS claim portal can be accessed via the e-Repayments system on Revenue’s Online Service (ROS). The facility to make claims in relation to energy bills covering the period from 1 March to 30 April 2023 opened today. Businesses who have already registered should update their reference period details in ROS e-Repayments for March and April 2022 in advance of submitting a claim for the extended periods of March and April 2023.

Claims relating to these periods will automatically be assessed based on the reduced 30% energy unit cost threshold and will be paid based on the increased level of 50% of the increase in the bill.

The increased monthly cap of €15,000 (subject to an overall monthly cap of €45,000) will also be automatically applied to these claims.

The facility to make claims in relation to energy bills covering the claim period from 1 May to 31 May 2023 will open when the Finance Bill is passed. Revenue will issue a further update when the claim portal opens for this period.

The reduction in the eligibility threshold from 50% to 30% applies from 1 September 2022. Therefore, businesses who did not qualify because their unit cost threshold increased in the range of 30% – 50% are now eligible to register and submit claims. They will need to register and enter their reference period details for September 2021 to April 2022 before they can submit claims for scheme.

Some businesses registered for the scheme and submitted reference period details and claim details but did not meet the 50% threshold for some or all of the periods. From 24 April 2023, Revenue will begin reassessing claims already submitted for the period from 1 September 2022 to 28 February 2023 which did not meet the original 50% energy cost threshold. Those claims will be automatically recalculated on the basis of the revised 30% threshold and any payments due will be made to the businesses concerned. It will not be necessary for businesses to revise claims already submitted for these periods.

Once claims have been reassessed the business will receive a notification to their ROS inbox confirming the reassessment has occurred, after which the payment due to the business will be processed.

To assist businesses in applying for the scheme, Revenue has recorded a number of ‘How To’ videos, which can be viewed here.