The government will spend Ft 1.6 billion on natural gas subsidies to big families and low-income households until the end of this year. The government will subsidize the gas bill of 187,000 such families, MTI said, citing government spokeswoman Emese Danks. The social subsidies for big families and low-income households will come in addition to price subsidies Hungary provides for households based on average annual gas consumption, MTI said. The government raised household gas prices by an average 27% as of Aug. 1, the newswire said. Hungarian households pay only 60% of global market price for the fuel after the price increase, MTI added, citing energy research company GKI Energiakutató es Tanácsadó Kft. Hungary said earlier it spent Ft 105 billion on gas subsidies in the first half of this year. State spending on gas subsidies amounted to 76 billion forint last year, exceeding the budgeted 45 billion forint, MTI added.