Repeating
a pattern set in recent years,
Bulgaria
's state-run gas company Bulgargaz
and the energy regulator once again came to blows on March 10 concerning the
next gas price increase.
First, the gas company requested a 26.42 per cent
price hike from April 1, only for Angel Semerdzhiev, head of the State Energy
and Water Regulatory Commission (SEWRC), to come out and say that the demands
were exaggerated and unrealistic.
Semerdzhiev's counter-proposal was for a 15 per
cent increase.
Economy Minister Traycho Traykov, who attended a
meeting of Parliament's economic policies committee, declined to comment, as
did MPs, who said they were not familiar with the company's reasoning.
On previous occasions, Bulgargaz generally sought
a sharper rise, only for the regulator to approve an increase of slightly more
than half the size requested. In January, prices rose by 10.45 per cent against
a request for 17.02 per cent.
The requested hike would deal another heavy blow
to the industrial sector and heating utilities. According to SEWRC
calculations, a 15 per cent upward revision in gas tariffs would translate into
an average 11 per cent rise in heating rates nationwide.
"Such a request is rather far-fetched and
even cynical," Anton Petrov, chairperson of the Bulgarian Association of
the Metallurgical Industry, told Dnevnik.
Bulgargaz' price hike proposal has been taking
shape since mid-February, when the company estimated it would need to charge
16.62 per cent higher rates, based on the higher prices of alternative gas
fuels on the international markets, the exchange rate with the US dollar and
proceeds from due revenue for the third quarter.
The current tariff, 413.24 leva for 1000 cubic
metres, would go up to 522.40 leva if the watchdog granted the requested increase.
Konstantin Stamenov, chairperson of the Bulgarian
Federation of Industrial Energy Consumers, told Dnevnik there is no sense in
Bulgaria moving against the global trend, which is for gas prices to go down
because of oversupply. He said that by robbing
Bulgaria
's industrial sector of its
competitive edge, this policy would doom the sector.
(from
the Hellenic Business Council in
Bulgaria
– HBCB)