The news on the household appliances bonus, discount on the invoice of up to 200 euro

A total of EUR 50 million is available for 2025.

The original rule referred to energy-efficient household appliances, not lower than the new energy class B, produced in the EU territory with simultaneous disposal of the replaced appliance.

The problem is that in classes B and A, products made in Italian sites are non-existent or almost non-existent and would have ended up mainly benefiting productions made in other European countries even by non-EU brands such as Asian ones.

Hence the correction. The amendment now establishes that it will be directly the implementing decree will determine the type of household appliances eligible for incentives, which must in any case be 'produced in a factory located in the territory of the European Union'.

The purchase must provide for the 'corresponding disposal of the replaced appliance in an energy class', necessarily - it is now specified - 'lower than the newly purchased one'.

The Giovine amendment then establishes that the management of the contribution is to be carried out throughthe IT platform of PagoPa (a company of the Ministry of the Economy) envisaged by Decree 152 2021. This is essentially the IDPay platform, which will be the evolution of the so-called 'Star Centre for Electronic Payments', which had already managed the state 'cashback' operation.

The details will only be available once the implementing decree is issued, but one hypothesis is that after logging in with Spid or electronic identity card (Cie) to the PagoPa platform, one can book a reservation with the subsequent generation of a sort of electronic voucher, perhaps by means of a QR code, to be used at retailers who will have to apply the discount on the invoice. Obviously everything within the limit of available resources.

The provision of access via PagoPa could complicate the timetable compared to the initial objectives. However the Mef company indicates a time horizon of 'a few weeks'.

"The platform has been fully operational for a few months now in accordance with the provisions of 28 bis and the relevant decree," explains PagoPa. "As for the home appliance bonus, the measure requires the implementation of some specific requirements (to be addressed by subsequent decrees), which need some additions by PagoPA and will require a few weeks of work.

The preliminary, verification, control and management activities of the financial resources will instead be carried out by Invitalia.

Both PagoPa and Invitalia will operate on the basis of an agreement stipulated with the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy in which the remuneration for their activities will be shared, within the overall limit of 3.8% of the 50 million euro (i.e. 1.9 million).

Thus, after deducting the maximum value that can be paid to PagoPa and Invitalia, the resources actually available to consumers will amount to EUR 48.1 million.