Rita Rodrigues, the association’s spokesperson said a careful look at the law that was published on Monday showed the VAT reduction from 23% to 6% applied only to the lowest power meters of up to 3.45 kVA and natural gas of up to 10,000 m3 a year – enabled the association to see that the reduction only applied to a fixed part and not the whole bill.

From a practical point of view this means annual savings of about €9.12 a year, she said.

Furthermore, the reduction will not benefit 3 million families as promised but 3 million contracts and only about 2 million families would benefit.

Since the power is very low, in many cases these meters are only for garages or storage rooms.