The price of diesel fuel the last few days rose more than throughout last year and such a development shakes any economic logic. Economist Veaceslav Ioniță said that during a year, the price of diesel fuel grew by 5 lei and by another 5 lei the last few days. Also, wholesale purchases were by up to 4 lei more expensive than retail ones these days. The authorities should immediately regulate the wholesale price of diesel fuel and should eliminate speculative intermediation, IPN reports.
The expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives “Viitorul” said that diesel fuel consumption in Moldova represents 70%, while gasoline consumption the rest. Two days ago, the filling stations sold diesel fuel for 25 lei/liter. The agricultural producers were offered a wholesale price of 28.5 lei or even 29 lei/liter due to the so-called liberalization of the wholesale market. The Commission for Exceptional Situations had to intervene to stop the rise that was possibly caused by the defective legislation. Economic logic says wholesale prices should be lower than retail prices.
Veaceslav Ioniță noted the current oil crisis revealed the monopoly existing on this market, how the monopolists manipulate and earn unjustified superprofit and how they manage to blackmail the authorities with the “shortage of diesel fuel” ahead of spring field works, following the example of oil sellers in Romania. Moldova suffers the consequences after tolerating the monopoly on the oil products market. There are only three importers, while the rest are intermediaries that introduced an unjustified profit margin, creating the monopoly.
“The liquefied petroleum gas that comes from Russia is not a problem, while the diesel fuel that comes from Romania was a problem. When the Commission for Exceptional Situations intervened, the problem disappeared. There is diesel fuel and the price is normal. The selling price is not the most serious issue at present. The chaos that generated much higher wholesale prices is a problem,” said the expert.
According to him, the Competition Council should clarify the situation and identify possible cases of abuse of dominant position on the oil market. It should impose penalties for what happened on the market during two days or similar abuses will be yet witnessed. The Security and Intelligence Service should determine why this chaos was artificially created in Moldova and who managed the situation and pushed the wholesale diesel fuel prices up to 29 lei/liter
The expert said the Moldovan authorities should regulate the wholesale price of diesel fuel, which should include the retail price regulated by the National Agency for Energy Regulation for filling stations minus the costs incurred by the filling stations. This means by 1 leu or 1.5 lei less as the impression is that the market is liberalized, but it is actually not.
