Energy experts request national energy regulator to publish calculations for gas tariffs

13.02.2018 15:32
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Energy experts demand that the National Agency for Energy Regulation (NAER) should publish the calculations for the natural gas tariffs, as the law provides, and announce public consultations only after this.

In a news conference at IPN, energy expert Sergiu Ungureanu said the NAER should publish all the components of the tariff, while Moldovagaz should make public the information about gas purchases and the applied leu - US dollar exchange rate. When the tariffs deviate from the real costs by more than 3%, preconditions appeal for updating the tariffs. This hasn’t been done even if the deviations have been much larger.

Victor Parlicov, ex-NAER director, said Moldovagaz suffers network losses of over 3 percentage points as a technical component and also commercial losses. The regulator includes in the tariff about 4 percentage points of losses sustained in the distribution network alone. It should be noted that a percentage point is equal to US$1.8 million. The size of losses should be aligned with the average of at most 2% in other states.

“If we follow the calculations of Moldovagaz, we see that the operational costs of the supplier come to over 70 million lei, while the applied profit is of over 100%. Profitability is applied to the costs incurred in activity,” said Tudor Soitu, expert of the association “WatchDog.md” community and former vice president of the Court of Auditors.

“WatchDog.md” expert Sergiu Tofilat said the NAER has for now presented no estimates of the tariff deviations, which is an essential component in determining gas tariffs. The experts called on the Government and the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, as shareholders of Moldovagaz, to safeguard Moldova’s interests and not to allow contracts with abusive clauses. Speaking about the transportation of gas through Moldova’s territory, Sergiu Tofilat said two thirds of the gas pipelines are located on the right bank of the Nistru, while one third on the left bank, but the incomes from transportation are inexplicably divided into two.

Household consumers pay 6.3 lei per cubic meter of natural gas, including VAT of 8%. According to experts’ appraisals, the tariff should be decreased to 4.2 lei.