Gas rates remain unchanged after appellate court decision

The Chisinau Court of Appeals on Thursday rejected Moldovagaz's application requesting the annulment of the new pricing methodology used by ANRE at the last increase in gas tariffs, Info-Prim Neo reports. The energy regulatory agency ANRE on January 26 decided to increase the gas rates by 12.2% on average. The decision upset the gas utility Moldovagaz, which had requested an increase of 18%. The difference between the old 2008 methodology and the new one, which was published in January 2011, relates to the calculation of maintenance and network loss. The old methodology allowed for 65 million cubic meters of such loss, but the new methodology caps it at 16 million cubic meters. On the insistence of Moldovagaz, ANRE accepted to rise it to 32 million cu.m., but the utility still remains unsatisfied. The decision of the Chisinau Court of Appeals can be further challenged in the Supreme Court of Justice. According to ANRE's press service, there are no legal grounds to revise the gas rates and further increase them.