Energy expert Sergiu Tofilat says that he saved gas consumers over 600 million lei in four years through a draft law. Statements in this regard were made at a news conference held at IPN.
Sergiu Tofilat noted that in 2008, Moldovagaz revalued the patrimony and from almost 900 million lei this rose to more than 5 billion lei. He later asked the National Agency for Energy Regulation (NAER) to include these expenses in the charge as additional wear and tear, and the Agency accepted. Thus, in 2021 it drafted a bill to amend the gas law and not to allow the inclusion of wear and tear by revaluation further in the charge.
The energy expert added that the results of the revaluation were not accepted by the company's management bodies and the NAER had no reason to include them in the charge. Likewise, the duration of operation of the gas pipelines has been extended, but supporting documents are not available, respectively such documents were not presented to him, upon request.
According to Tofilat, the process has been stopped since 2021, but everything that was paid from 2009 to 2021 - 1.8 billion lei - was paid unreasonably by consumers. He has made effort to find a legal solution for Moldovagaz to return 1.8 billion lei to the consumers. In this regard, he asked the company for more materials.
The expert also said that from the alleged debt of the right bank of the Nistru to Gazprom, of US$709 million, Moldova is ready to pay US$8.6 million. A draft amicable settlement agreement was sent by Moldovagaz to Gazprom, but this was not accepted by Gazprom. In the expert’s opinion, on each element that contributed to the increase of the debt, materials must be collected and sent to court, for a final court decision to be taken.
Sergiu Tofilat noted that the administration of Moldovagaz takes the side of the Russian giant Gazprom and, in order to make progress on this subject, the management of the company in Chisinau must be changed.
Note: IPN Agency offers the right of reply to persons who consider that they were targeted in the news articles produced based on statements made by the organizers of this press conference, including by facilitating the organization of another press conference under similar conditions.
