The debt of the Transnistrian area for the Russian natural gas reached $1.053 billion on September 1, 2008, Info-Prim Neo's correspondent in the area quotes the Transnistrian deputy minister for industry, Natalia Rusanova. In the first 8 months of this year, the Transnistrian area received gas worth $212 million. By September 1, the regional authorities paid for only 20% of the consumption. As a result the debt rose to $155.9 million. The statistic will be updated by the year-end, the Tiraspol deputy minister states. As from October 1, the difference between the price set up by Gazprom and the actual charges for the users grew steadily. “In the fourth quarter of the year, both Moldova and Transnistria will pay $282.84 per 1,000 cubic meters,” Natalia Rusanova specified. Now the Transnistrian consumers pay a tariff of $49.47, that is but 17.5% of the supplier's price. The plants pay $109.3 per 1,000 cubic meters, that is 38.6% of Gazprom's price.