MP Radu Marian is proposing a six-month moratorium on the construction of new filling stations until stricter rules for building them are developed. Another proposal from the PAS lawmaker is to remove the fixed licensing fee on the importation and wholesale of fuels, while banning resale in bulk. At the same time, harsher fines are proposed.
During a press conference, Marian said consumers are “rightly upset” by the sharp rise in fuel prices after they skyrocketed on international markets. “While we cannot influence global prices, what we can do is boost competition and efficiency in our market. Unfortunately, several petroleum companies, especially the largest ones, refuse to compete below the price caps set by ANRE. This happens even if there are smaller companies that set prices 0.3-0.4 lei below the maximums”, said the PAS lawmaker.
According to him, the excessive number of filling stations leads to increasing costs and greater pressure on prices at the pump. “In cities, especially in Chisinau, there are filling stations at every turn, and that makes no economic sense”. The moratorium will be applied for six months, and in the meantime the authorities will establish much stricter standards for the construction of such stations.
As for the removal of the fixed licensing fee, which costs 260,000 lei a year, the lawmaker says it was introduced to deter the entry of smaller importers and is thus stifling competition. The proposal is to replace the fee with an import tax of 10 lei per metric ton.
On another note, Marian thinks harsher fines will increase the responsibility of fuel companies. Currently fines range from 3,000 to a maximum of 15,000 lei, which he says are “symbolic amounts” compared to the “hundreds of millions of lei” that many of these companies make, but also compared to the potential damage caused by violating the rules.
As for the resale in bulk, Radu Marian said that in 2017 Parliament adopted an amendment introduced by Democrat Vladimir Andronachi, which allowed any market participant to buy fuels in the country to resell for profit. Large companies have strengthened their positions while driving small importers off the market. According to him, during this time, the number of licensees has decreased by 40%, from 37 importers in 2018 to only 22 in 2020. Marian’s proposal is to restore the previous version of the law so that fuels can be sold in bulk only to end buyers.
