Transnistrian companies should be prepared for 70 % increase in gas rate

Transnistrian companies should be prepared to buy gas on its purchase price of US$393 per 1,000 cubic meters, said the head of the price and anti-monopoly activities department, under the Transnistrian government, Vitaly Ulitka.

He recommended the leadership of the region’s enterprises to modernize the production, in order to decrease the power consumption and to enhance the competitiveness of their production.

Ulitka said that even the planned 70% increase in tariffs in 2013 – up to US$250, will not be enough to cover all the expenses. He wondered who will compensate the left US$143.

«Under the current circumstances, we may have huge gas arrears that we will not be able to repay. At the same time, the gas provider may lay down the following condition: either we pay the gas rates on the current tariffs or the gas delivery to the region will be ceased.» 

In his words, in the neighboring countries: Moldova and Ukraine, everyone pays the full gas tariffs. The former Transnistrian leadership created such conditions, under which the enterprises have not been stimulated to enhance their competitiveness. 

He said that no analytical documents proving that the 70% increase in the gas component for the Transnistrian enterprises will negatively influence the production, have been submitted to the government.

Recently, the majority of lawmakers in the supreme soviet [Transnistrian parliament] has criticized the government’s intention to sharply rise the gas tariffs, stating that this decision will negatively tell on industrial enterprises of the region. In particular, the president of the parliamentary committee for economic policy, budget and finance, Oleg Vasilatii said that the 70% increase in gas rates will imply «a severe economic shock and a huge risk to get no budgetary revenues at all.» Transnistrian parliament speaker Mikhail Burla advocated a 17% increase in gas tariffs. 

Adapted from Infotag