5 Trade and other receivables

Trade and other receivables of €2,067 million (€2,442 million at 31 December 2013) comprise:

Receivables are reported net of the provision for impairment losses of €46 million (€44 million at 31 December 2013). Trade receivables of €1,766 million (€2,268 million at 31 December 2013) mainly refer to the natural gas transportation (€816 million), storage (€773 million) and distribution (€167 million) business segments.

Trade receivables relating to the transportation sector (€816 million) include receivables arising from the natural gas balancing service (€375 million)², in operation since 1 December 2011 pursuant to Electricity, Gas and Water Authority (hereinafter “the Authority”) Resolution ARG/gas 45/11. Under this measure, the leading natural gas transportation company (Snam Rete Gas), as Balancing Supervisor, is responsible for procuring the quantities of gas required to balance the system and offered on the market by users through a dedicated platform of the Energy Market Operator, and for financially settling the imbalances of individual users by buying and selling gas on the basis of a benchmark unit price (the “principle of economic merit”). Although the effects of this activity are essentially neutral in terms of the Company's income statement and it does not receive specific compensation for performing this role, the gas sales generated by balancing activities in the first half of 2014 and offset in costs totalled around €0.8 billion.

Storage trade receivables (€773 million) include the effects of incorporating revenue from the awarding of natural gas storage capacity through tenders and from the non-application of the variable storage fee, which was set at zero starting from 1 April 2014³.

Other receivables of €301 million (€172 million at 31 December 2013) comprise:

IRES receivables for the national tax consolidation scheme (€32 million) concern receivables with the former parent company, Eni, relating to the IRES refund request resulting from the partial IRAP deduction relating to tax years 2004-2007 (pursuant to Article 6 of Decree-Law 185 of 28 November 2008, enacted by Law 2 of 28 January 2009) and tax years 2007-2011 (pursuant to Decree-Law 201/2011).

Receivables from investment/divestment activities (€12 million) concern receivables for public and private grants entered against investment activities (€7 million) and transfers of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets (€5 million).

The receivables from the EEF (€149 million) mainly concern additional tariff components and receivables associated with the management of energy efficiency certificates for the distribution business segment.

Other receivables (€88 million), which refer essentially to the natural gas distribution segment, concern receivables from government authorities (€18 million) and receivables from associates and joint ventures relating to unpaid dividends (€13 million).

The fair value measurement of trade and other receivables has no material impact. All receivables are in euros. Receivables from related parties are described in Note 30, “Related-party transactions”. Information on credit risk can be found in the interim directors' report, in the “Elements of risk and uncertainty – Credit risk” section.