Gas rates might drop by at least ten per cent in Moldova

Chisinau, 22 January /MOLDPRES/ - The tariffs for gas supplied to the residents and enterprises might drop by at least ten per cent. This is a conclusion reached at a meeting between Prime Minister Pavel Filip and the management of the MoldovaGaz company.   

There are all prerequisites for the rates to be revised downwards. Yet, the decision is to be taken by the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE), which is an independent authority, the prime minister said after a working meeting on gas supply and the gas' delivery price, with participation of representatives of the Economics Ministry and MoldovaGaz.

"I received the first two assessments of the tariffs for gas and oil products. I have reasons for optimism. I think we might have downwards adjustings," Pavel Filip said. The goal of these assessments to is check whether the tariffs have been formed correctly. The citizens should have a well-reasoned answer, so that the people know what they pay and what for. There should no longer be a perception that somebody makes huge profits at the expense of the residents, Pavel Filip also said. "It is possible to ascertain that some tariffs are formed correctly and we should maintain them, yet equally possible for us is to have tariffs that we can adjust downwards," Prime Minister Filip also said.

Next week, a decision on the gas tariff is to be taken, the prime minister added. Pavel Filip said "it must be clear that nobody is going to make interferences in the work of ANRE, as the tariffs cannot be decreased, unless there are objective reasons and if absolutely all conditions are observed."  

In last mid-November, the ANRE Administrative Board approved a decision to increase the gas tariffs by 9.8 per cent against the ones approved in September 2011. The parliament on 20 December had unanimously adopted a draft on amendment of the law on natural gas, under which an amendment to the concerned law was cancelled, which entered into force in August 2014. This amendment triggered a 16-fold increase in the tariff for gas transportation. Afterwards, ANRE informed that the tariff for end consumers might be decreased by five per cent.  

In the fourth quarter of 2015, Moldova was buying gas from the Gazprom giant at a price of 204 dollars for 1,000 cubic metres of gas, against 311 dollars in the first quarter of the same year, according to MoldovaGaz data. 

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcaza)