The new methodology for calculating fuel prices worked out by the National Agency for Energy Regulation (NAER) creates perturbations on the oil products market in Moldova, said expert Veaceslav Ioniță, who noted that this is economic sabotage that leads to the monopolization of the market and eliminates any possibility of helping farmers with low fuel prices, IPN reports.
In the author program “Economic analyses with Veaceslav Ioniță”, the expert said that what the NAER calls methodology represents ‘national shame’ as this does not include the structure and size of eligible costs that are accepted or are not accepted, but the Agency should make this list public, transparent and known to everyone. Based on this structure and argued costs, the necessary coefficients can be approved by the Agency.
Veaceslav Ioniță said the methodology that took effect on July 1 goes against the law. The NAER didn’t publish information as to where it took the figures from. The Agency probably took the average costs and made them upper ceiling costs, creating this way perturbations on the oil products market. If no urgent action is taken, monopoly will be instituted in the Republic of Moldova. “Owing to these caps set by the NAER, the large companies will maintain the oil prices until the elections, but after these we will have an explosion in prices and this is clear already. Instead, the small companies will disappear,” stated Veaceslav Ioniță.
According to him, the Competition Council should have intervened as its duty is to say that the methodology approved by the NAER runs counter to the law on competition as it creates conditions for the monopolization of the market.
Veaceslav Ioniță considers there are two solutions. The first solution is for the NAER to urgently annul the own methodology and to design another one, in accordance with the national legislation, where emphasis will be placed on correct prices. The second solution is for the Government to urgently obtain the annulment of this methodology through court as the Republic of Moldova can no longer tolerate shocks, dissatisfaction and a bad methodology that is swiftly annulled when there are perturbations on foreign markets.
The new methodology was worked out after Parliament adopted a bill to cap the prices of oil products. The subject of price rises on the oil products market was widely debated after the fuel prices have grown recurrently since last December.
