The Cabinet approved changes to the Law on Oil Products Market by which it empowered the National Agency for Energy Regulation (NAER) to set the price ceiling for the liquefied petroleum gas every two weeks, depending on the international quotations. The bill is to be passed by Parliament, IPN reports.
“The amendments proposed by the Cabinet will have immediate effects on the consumers and on the business environment by limiting the abusive practices used to set the prices of liquefied petroleum gas, simultaneously with the removal of the shortcomings existing in the competition sector,” it is said in the informative note to the bill.
The NAER posted the price ceiling for liquefied petroleum gas until this July, when legislative amendments took effect and deprived it of this power. During the last two months, the Agency has set the price ceilings only for diesel fuel and gasoline, while the price ceiling for liquefied petroleum gas was dictated by holders of licenses for the import and sale of fuels, which were to take into account a reasonable profitability rate.
The NAER sent a letter to the Cabinet, informing it about the necessity of returning to the old practice. According to the Agency, a cap is needed on the price of liquefied petroleum gas because this is imported into Moldova and its price should be correlated with the quotations on regional and international stock exchanges.
