The Budapest government is to impose limits on the subsidy it provides for household gas consumption from July 1, with all subventions being phased out by 2009, according to local media reports.

<p>The Nepszabadsag newspaper reports that the government will abandon subsidies for those consumers using more than 1,500 meters of gas per year in July, with provisional exceptions for the elderly and other disadvantaged groups. <br /><br />Currently the Hungarian state offers rebates for consumption up to 3,000 cubic meters per annum. As a consequence, the report states that Hungary&#0039;s major gas player, MOL, made a significant loss on its gas supply operations in Q1 as it struggled to reconcile the limits on the retail price caused by the subsidies with the surging wholesale price of gas on the open market.<br /><br />MOL recently sold much of its Hungarian gas business to E.ON.</p>