● MONDAY, January 11

Three oil companies risk remaining without license 

The National Agency for Energy Regulation initiated the procedure for penalizing four oil companies that committed irregularities. Three of these risk remaining without license for a period of two months, while the fourth operator is liable to a fine. According to the agency, “Auto - Mar” and “Dies – Tehnologie” could be deprived of licenses because they didn’t fully meet the previous prescriptions issued after irregularities were identified in their financial accounts.

● TUESDAY, January 12

Penalties for not paying taxes on time 

The penalty (delay rise) for the late payment of taxes into the state budget and the local budgets this year will represent 0.0683% of the overdue sum for each day of delay. Under Article 228 of the Tax Code, the delay rise is a sum determined based on the size of taxes and the period of delay, no matter whether the taxes were calculated on time or not. The fiscal body or other competent bodies are obliged to impose this penalty, regardless of the form of constraint. The size of the penalty is determined annually based on the base rate set by the National Bank of Moldova on short-term monetary policy operations last November (19.5%).

BEM, Banca Sociala and Unibank to repay state aid 

Banca de Economii (BEM), Banca Sociala and Unibank will have to repay the assistance of 14 billion lei provided by the state so that they are kept on a floating line. Such a decision was taken by the Competition Council, which said that the use of the state aid by the commercial banks six months after its provision is considered abusive. The Competition Council opened an investigation following signals that the legislation on the provision of state aid is being violated by the National Bank of Moldova because this didn’t present a plan for restructuring or liquidating the three banks within six months of the provision of the state aid.

● WEDNESDAY, January 13

 Meat and dairy producers invited at Agriculture Ministry 

A plan of action for protecting the national meat and dairy producers will be worked out within three days. This will envision the assessment of imports, initiation of the process of introducing import taxes, intensification of border control, etc. Such an agreement was reached by acting minister of agriculture and food industry Ion Sula with associations of producers in a meeting summoned to discuss the extension of the imports of products of animal origin from Ukraine. According to a press release of the Ministry of Agriculture, the interlocutors discussed the possibility of drawing up a program with actions that need to be taken to improve hygiene in the dairy sector and the necessity of promoting the national products by increasing consumption.

Three providers of electronic communications services remain without licenses 

Three providers of electronic communications services were deprived of licenses after the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology identified a serious of violations committed by these. The three providers didn’t activate the blocks of numbers allotted to them within one year of the allotment and didn’t inform the Agency about this. In a press release, the Agency says the three companies are “Spice Telecom”, “Febo Telecom” and “On Net Int”. The Agency adopted several decisions by which it recognized the invalidity of the licenses issued in 2014 to the three companies for using the blocks of phone numbers for providing public electronic communications networks and services.

National energy regulator modifies gas tariff calculation methodology 

The end-users of gas will no longer incur costs related to gas transportation. The Administration Board of the National Agency for Energy Regulation modified the methodology for calculating the regulated natural gas tariffs in a public meeting on January 13. The modifications were made after Parliament on November 20, 2015 abrogated the so-called ‘Furdui amendment’ to the Law on Natural Gas. This amendment provided that all the incomes earned from the transportation of natural gas will be used by SA Moldovagaz, while the costs related to the transportation will be covered by end-users.

● THURSDAY, January 14

Anatol Arapu: There is enough money for salaries and social benefits 

Acting minister of finance Anatol Arapu, in the January 14 meeting of the interim Cabinet, said there is enough money for paying the salaries and social benefits for January. Asked by acting Prime Minister Gheorghe Brega to comment on unofficial reports about the delays in paying salaries, Anatol Arapu said the law on public finances and budgetary-fiscal responsibilities and the new methodology for utilizing the national public budget started to be applied on January 1, 2016. The budget payments can be made only after the provisional budgets of the authorities and budget institutions are fully disintegrated.

Control over production of alcohol to be improved 

The authorities aim to improve the supervision and control over the production of alcoholic beverages. The interim Cabinet on January 14 approved new regulations concerning the organization and functioning of the State Inspectorate for Alcohol Production Supervision. Under the regulations, the Inspectorate will supervise and examine the production and circulation of ethyl alcohol and alcoholic beverages, the manufacture, keeping, labeling and sale of wine, products made from unfermented wine or wine, secondary wine products and products made from these. It will also check the production of wines with protected names of origin and geographical indications, sale of beer wholesale and marking of alcoholic drinks.

EBRD assessed project to build Ungheni-Chisinau gas pipeline as feasible, acting minister 

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) ascertained that the project to build the Ungheni-Chisinau gas pipeline is feasible, acting Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Stephane Bride said in the February 14 meeting of the interim Cabinet. Stephane Bride noted that when the study is translated into Romanian, it will be proposed for public debates. The building works are to start this year. Acting Prime Minister Gheorghe Brega said they should insist on building a pipe with the diameter of 600 mm, not 500 mm as the feasibility study provides, so as to exclude the necessity of constructing a compressor station on Romania’s territory. Also, the transportation capacity of the pipe should be increased to 2.5 billion cubic meters a year.

● SATURDAY,  January 16

Wine exports to CIS decline, while to Western countries increase 

The exports of bottled wine to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in the first ten months of last year decreased by 21% compared with the corresponding period of 2014, but the bottled wine exports to the Western countries rose by 24%. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry communicated that the wine exports to Russia increased by 40% in the period. It should be noted that the export of wine to Russia was gradually resume last year, after a pause of over a year following an import ban imposed by this country. The exports of bottled wine to the CIS in January – October last year came to over 11 million liters. The largest quantity of wine – over 4 million liters - was exported to Russia. Large amounts were also exported to Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.