The Government is eliminating several obligations related to the installation of gas and electricity in properties which to date have entailed significant costs for customers.
Laws have been approved by the Council of Ministers that establish new systems for the installation of gases and electricity in properties while ensuring "safety will be fully assured."
Among the easing of these burdensome rules is the scrapping of the need for separate approval of a new gas installation project, the installer soon can sign off the work under his terms of responsibility.
The current system where an expensive inspection is required when someone buys a property, or where there is a change of property renter, also will be done away with.
Currently, when a customer changes his gas supplier an inspection must take place - this requirement will be scrapped.
"These were only formalities, but they caused many problems and additional costs for users," said Economy Minister Manuel Caldeira Cabral, adding that these new measures are part of the Simplex 2016 programme and are “designed to push for simplification and cost reductions for users and businesses, as well as stimulating greater market competition by doing away with additional inspection costs which waste time and money.”
The Minister said the costs for families and companies will cease to exist: "In the event that an inspection is no longer required, in the event of a change in the account holder, or when there is a change of supplier, costs not only will be reduced: they will disappear."
"What is at issue is that periodic inspections continue to exist, they go on every two years or three years but now when a tenant changes there will be no requirement for another inspection."
