The decision was taken by the Socialist government at its regular weekly cabinet meeting. The introduction of automatic eligibility for the social tariff, eliminating bureaucratic obstacles, was proposed by the Left Bloc - one of the parties that supports the Socialist government in parliament - during the debate on the 2015 state budget, and taken up by the government.
The aim is that the take-up of the social tariff will increase to around one million households compared with 110,000 last year.
According to figures from the energy sector regulator, the ERSE, by the end of March 2015 the number of households benefitting from the social tariff for electricity had almost tripled in a year to 140,000 from 48,515.
In the first three months of 2016 alone, 31,738 more households benefited from a 33.8 percent discount on their electricity bills.
The number of beneficiaries of the social tariff for gas was 14,103 at end-March, up from 6,106 a year earlier. TPN/Lusa