89 procedures and streamlined the administration of the HUS program. The government allocated additional fiscal and administrative resources to help prepare for an influx of new beneficiaries, and the Ministry of Social Policy recruited an additional 1,200 staffers to process the applications. By October 2015, 3,000 officers in local social welfare offices processing applications for the HUS program had been trained on the new rules and procedures.

Government spending on social protection is expected to increase from 1.0 percent of GDP in 2015 to 1.9 percent in 2016 and 2.4 percent in 2017 (IMF 2015i). In the longer term, the government plans to integrate the energy bill assistance program into the broader social safety net system built around a reformed and affordable Guaranteed Minimum Income program.

The government also plans to revise the billing method for energy, allowing bill payments to be smoothed over the year—with payments for the previous heating season completed before the beginning of the new one—to avoid an undue strain on households and maintain payment compliance.

The government will accelerate the program to install gas and heat meters to allow households to monitor and control their energy consumption. Metering is almost complete for households with individual heating using large amounts of gas, but the coverage of low‐gas‐consumption households is low. As of mid‐2014, metering for heat was only at 36 percent. The government is targeting universal gas and heat metering and plans to move to consumption‐based billing by the end of 2016. To improve energy efficiency, the government is making legislative changes to promote investment in multi‐housing apartment buildings where the majority of heating losses occur (IMF 2014c; World Bank 2013c; World Bank staff estimations).

# **United Arab Emirates**

In July 2015, the Ministry of Energy announced that gasoline and diesel prices would be “deregulated” with effect from August 1 to support the economy, lower fuel consumption, protect the environment, and preserve national resources. Although the government refers to price deregulation, economic regulation continues, with local prices linked to the international fuel price movement. The price history since July 2015 is shown in Figure 26. The price of diesel fuel has been lower in every month since July 2015, and gasoline prices have also been lower since October (98 RON), November (95 RON), and January (91 RON). The new pricing policy therefore has had little adverse short‐term effects, if any.

For the monthly price adjustment, the government set up a fuel price committee, chaired by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of the Energy and including the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance and chief executive officers of national oil companies. The committee announces new prices on the 28<sup>th</sup> of each month for the following month. In his announcement, the Minister of Energy said that in‐depth studies on long‐term economic, social, and environmental effects had informed the decision, which was expected to improve the country’s economic competitiveness and investment climate, foster market‐based sustainable economy, encourage the use of public transport, and build a strong economy not dependent on subsidies. The Ministry of Energy has assigned a dedicated phone number and an email address for public inquiries on the new deregulated fuel prices (UAE 2015).