Over €4.3 million has been paid out to farmers and agri-businesses under the government’s Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS), according to the latest statistics published by Revenue. As of September 9, a total of 30,475 businesses from various sectors had registered for the scheme. Out of these, 26,483 have commenced the claim process, with 18,487 businesses having fully completed their claims, and 7,996 still in the process of making a claim. So far, a total of 56,126 claims have been approved, with a value exceeding €129 million.
In the agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector, 2,582 registrations for the government scheme were made by September 9. Revenue has approved 3,073 claims from this sector to receive support. The approved claims have a total value of €4.49 million, and so far, €4.32 million has been paid out. Among the approved claims in this sector, 1,198 were for enterprises with no employees, 1,504 were for businesses with 1-9 employees, 300 had 10-49 employees, and 71 had over 50 employees.
The Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS) was introduced by the government to assist qualifying businesses with the increased costs of electricity or natural gas. Administered by Revenue, the scheme provides a cash payment to eligible businesses. Revenue has reminded businesses that the deadline to submit claims for TBESS is September 30, 2023. Claims can be made for energy bills from September 1, 2022, up to July 31, 2023, and the claim portal can be accessed through Revenue’s Online Service (ROS).
To make a claim, businesses need to have all electricity and natural gas bills for the reference period of September 1, 2021, to July 2022, as well as for the claim periods from September 2022 to the present. Eligible businesses that have not yet registered or completed the claim process are encouraged to do so. Revenue has noted that there are still incomplete registrations and claims on ROS for TBESS. It emphasized that registration is the first step for access to the scheme, followed by claim submission.
