18 Trade and other payables

Trade and other payables of €1,477 million (€1,344 million at 31 December 2011) comprise:

Trade payables of €764 million (€556 million at 31 December 2011) relate essentially to the natural gas transportation (€423 million, of which €309 million arises from the balancing service), distribution (€177 million) and storage (€98 million) business segments.

Payables for investments of €406 million (€486 million at 31 December 2011) refer mainly to the natural gas transportation (€210 million), storage (€103 million) and distribution (€62 million) business segments. The decrease of €80 million compared with 31 December 2011 is attributable mainly to payment dynamics.

Other payables of €307 million (€302 million at 31 December 2011) break down as follows:

Payables to the Electricity Equalisation Fund (€179 million) concern accessory tariff components that mainly relate to: (i) the transportation business segment (measures and interventions to save energy and develop renewable sources in the natural gas segment, fees arising from the application of the revenue guarantee for the storage service and price reductions for disadvantaged gas customers), pursuant respectively to Electricity and Gas Authority Resolutions ARG/gas 177/10, ARG/gas 29/11 and ARG/com 93/10 (€116 million) and from the application of Resolution 351/2012/R/gas to recover the resources needed to cover costs related to the gas balancing system (€18 million); (ii) the storage segment (covering equalisation imbalances), pursuant to Resolution 50/06 (€13 million); and (iii) the distribution segment (energy savings, gas service quality, equalisation imbalances, disadvantaged customers), pursuant mainly to Resolution ARG/gas 159/08 (€32 million).

At 31 December 2012, the national tax consolidation scheme payables, arising from the participation of all Snam Group subsidiaries in the scheme, are recorded under “Current income tax liabilities” and VAT payables are recorded under “Other current tax liabilities”. The amount of €7 million at 31 December 2012 refers to the payment of taxes pertaining to previous years that were still subject to the national tax consolidation scheme with eni.

Payables to government authorities (€9 million) primarily concern payables to municipalities for concession fees pertaining to the distribution business.

The fair value measurement of trade and other payables has no material impact given the short period of time between when the payable arises and its due date.

Note 36 “Related-party transactions” contains information about payables due to related parties.