MP of the Party of Action and Solidary (PAS) Radu Marian said the directors of the Nationals Agency for Energy Regulation (NAER) and the Competition Council should resign right away after oil sellers increased fuel prices for the fourth time the past two months, IPN reports.
“The oil sellers say the price increased on international markets too. But they don’t say that the price of gasoline in Moldova rose more (+20%) than, for example, in Romania (+10%). These people’s impudence is simply limitless. In 2020, which was a crisis year with an unprecedented drought, the companies put on gasoline a markup that was twice higher than in the last fewer years. Why do they do this? Because they are allowed to,” stated the MP.
According to him, the NAER would say that they can do nothing given that the tariff can be adjusted within the markup of 10%, but it should say that the methodology for calculating the costs of fuel sellers is fully corrupt. The oil sellers can class as costs what they want – from training sessions abroad to studies of bosses’ children.
“The Competition Council would say there is no evidence of cartel agreements. Surely, there are no proofs when no one looks for them. The problem is these institutions are still managed by corrupt and incompetent persons named there by Plahotniuc and kept by the current Parliament. These institutions are under parliamentary control and should be cleaned,” stated Radu Marian.
A number of gas stations posted higher fuel prices on February 16, this being the fourth rise in prices the past two months.
At the beginning of February, the Parliament’s commission on economy budget and finance held hearings on the oil products market. In these, the Competition Council noted that six oil companies that together manage 66% of the gas stations in the country adopt a similar behavior with regard to the modification of prices, which are similar, during 48-72 hours. The analysis of board prices points to a disagreement in the market’s reaction to the international quotations, namely the immediate reaction to the rise in quotations and the delayed reaction to declines.
