New end-users will be connected to the electric power network within 60 days of the payment of the connection tax, not 140 days as until now, IPN reports, quoting the Law on Electric Power that came recently into force.

Deputy Minister of Economy Tudor Copaci, who presented the law in a news conference, said the new legal act provides that the operators of power distribution networks will be obliged to answer the consumers’ request within 10 days of the receipt of the application. In 10 days, the operator of the power distribution network will design and set up the connection installation. If embankment works are required, the connection period will be 40 days for low voltage power lines and 60 days for medium and high voltage power lines.

The connection terms will be calculated from the day the applicant pays the connection tax. The applicant can employ another authorized person to design and construct the connection installation instead of the network operator.

The single connection tax is set by the National Agency for Energy Regulation. The costs related to the purchase, metrological examination, installation, exploitation, repair and replacement of the electricity meters will be covered by the network operators, only for household users.

Now that the law took effect, Moldova can go up in the World Bank’s Doing Business. In the last rankings, Moldova was the 165th of 189 countries by the period of connection to the electricity network. In the general rankings, according to all the indicators, it was the 78th of 189 countries.