Farmers reminded of TBESS deadline

The Chairperson of ICMSA’s Farm Business Committee, Shane O’Loughlin, has warned farmers intending to engage with TBESS that claims deadline for the first month covered by the scheme, September 2022, is fast approaching.

“The TBESS provides support to qualifying farm businesses in respect of energy costs in the period from September 1st 2022 to February 28th 2023,” he said.

“The scheme is open to farmers and other businesses that have experienced an increase of 50 per cent or more in their electricity and/or natural gas average unit price and those that fulfil the criteria can claim for 40 per cent of the increases in their energy bills. The increase in energy bills must be between the claim period and the reference period in question.

Mr O’Loughlin further explained: “A claim period is a calendar month from September 2022 to February 2023. A reference period is the corresponding calendar month in the previous year.

“So, for example, September 2021 is the reference period for the September 2022 claim period and this is where the first deadline is looming: January 31 is the last day to claim for the increased energy costs of September 2022 relative to September 2021”.

This scheme is expected to continue until the end of June of this year but Mr O’Loughlin believes extending it should be a priority “given that energy prices from utility companies are not falling”.

“There is a limit of €10,000 applies to the total payments that a qualifying business can claim for each month,” he concluded.