Energy expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” Victor Parlicov considers the new purchase price of electric power is relatively good, but the fact that the electricity continues to be bought from one source – the Cuchurgan Power Plant – is a problem, IPN reports.

“I think we now have a decent price of electricity, which is close to the wholesale price on the Ukrainian market,” the expert said in an interview for Radio Free Europe.

Victor Parlicov noted that the wholesale price in Ukraine is now 4.1-4.2 cents, as opposed to 4.9 cents paid currently by Moldova for power. “It is evident that the transportation costs are to be added to this price. Obviously, if we had had offers of relatively equal prices, priority should have been given to the offer of quantity as we cannot buy the whole amount from Ukraine owing to the technical aspect, but at least preference should have been given to the Ukrainian side,” he stated.

The expert also said that he has controversial feelings as to the decrease in the electricity tariffs by 8% and 10% because, when the National Agency for Energy Regulation does what the politicians say about these tariffs, suspicions appear as to the independence of this institution.

“This decision does not take into account all the aspects defined by the methodology and I refer here to the financial deviations first of all. The financial deviations are losses sustained by energy companies when the exchange rate of the Moldovan leu varied significantly at the end of 2014 and the start of 2015. These negative financial deviations, as they are called methodologically, weren’t taken into account and only this allowed reducing the tariff. If the financial deviations had been taken into consideration, we would have spoken about a rise in tariffs, even if the purchase price decreased, because these deviations exceed 1 billion lei, according to companies’ calculations,” he stated.

Victor Parlicov noted that the Government now wants to reduce the tariff burden for end-users by decreasing tariffs, given the socioeconomic situation in the country. On the other hand, the investors have the right to recover these deviations.