English
Alina Toma Vereha
Legislation concerning gas prices forbids lowering or freezing prices in for reasons of social protection or inflation prevention, as well as any policies that use pricing and tariffs as social protection instruments or to directly or indirectly subsidize consumers. At the same time, the market watchdog - ANRE -must defend the interests and rights of consumers through fair pricing, without impeding market competition and harming the economic interests of the market operators.
The recent scandal of gas bills is proof that the ANRE failed its mission. Consumers are indignant that gas prices haven"t dropped, and operators claim they"re running huge losses because they can"t cover their costs. Members of the Parliament keep talking big, promising an investigation that would elucidate this case, but the Permanent Office of the Chamber of Deputies has not yet reached a conclusion. The investigation is necessary and must determine who was prejudiced by the locking of gas prices - consumers or the distribution and production companies.
ANRE defends itself, maintaining that it has upheld the rights of both parties, and that it has not broken the law by causing companies to operate at a loss, by not being able to cover their gas acquisition costs. Gabriel Sârbu, director with the ANRE, issued the following statement for our paper: "We"ve had discussions with the companies on this issue and we have to admit that we have to take into consideration these gas acquisitions costs. But the recognition of these costs can"t be done right away. So we have come to an agreement with the companies to maintain the gas prices at their July 1st levels for the first quarter of this year as well". He explained that had the ANRE increased gas prices in Q4, it would have meant entering winter with high gas prices, and then at the beginning of 2009, the ANRE would have had to lower prices, following the cheapening of gas imported from the Russian Federation.
The ANRE director emphasized that the ANRE and the market operators chose to keep the price at a constant level instead of allowing it to fluctuate wildly, which would have affected consumers, especially considering that in autumn, international oil prices were on a strong upward trend: "Starting this summer, the price of imported gas will start rising again. We have therefore protected consumers as well as allowing operators cover their costs for 2008".
Gabriel Sârbu claims that costs not covered by the current tariffs amount to about 126 million lei. This money will be recovered, this year, by Distrigaz Sud and E.ON Gaz from their production and distribution margins. This year, the price of gas will only be affected by the acquisition costs.
Euro
Dolar SUA
Franc elveţian
Liră sterlină
Gram de aur
