Moldolvan economics ministry, Gaz Natural Fenosa sign arrangement on recovery of tariff deviations

20:14 | 08.06.2016 Category: Economic

Chisinau, 8 June /MOLDPRES/ - The recovery of tariff deviations by Gaz Natural Fenosa, formed as a result of the national currency’s depreciation, will start on 1 January 2017 and will last four years, according to an arrangement signed by the Economics Ministry and Gaz Natural Fenosa today. The sum of deviations, adjusted to the interest rate, will amount to almost 1.75 billion lei.

The tariff deviations were accumulated given the non-adjusting of tariffs for electric energy during 2012-2015, according to the Economics Ministry’s communication and public relations service. Following more rounds of talks, they managed to diminish the sum of tariff deviations, which appeared by 31 December 2015, and initially claimed by the Gaz Natural Fenosa Group, from 1.881 billion to 1.637 billion lei.

The deviations will be recovered through the tariffs of distribution and supply of electric energy, annually calculated and adjusted, in order to fully recover the basic debt during the indicated recovery period, at a yearly interest rate of 7.66 per cent.

The final decision on the confirmation of deviations and the working out of the mechanism of recovery through tariff for electric energy is to be taken by the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE).

The signing of the arrangement by the Moldovan authorities and the Gaz Natural Fenosa Group was welcomed by the Secretariat of the Energy Community, facilitator of the negotiations, which considers that the non-signing of this document would have had a negative impact on Moldova’s reputation as investments destination and reliable partner for international organizations.

In the opinion of the Secretariat of the Energy Community, the Arrangement is the first decisive step to put an end to a dispute from the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), which lasted several months. We remind that, in August 2015, Gas Natural Fenosa started an action at law against Moldova at ICSID under the World Bank, on grounds that ANRE had not included the financial deviations in the tariff for electric energy.

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcaza)

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