Prime Minister Dorin Recean said that a very hard winter is coming and the risks are related to a possible interruption innatural gas supplies to the left bank of the Nistru, but also to the increase in natural gas charges, requested by Moldovagaz, IPN reports.
“I have to be honest with you, we have to face a very hard winter. We have to prepare for this. Difficulties and a possible crisis arise from two sources. The first source is the eventual interruption in natural gas supplies to the left bank of the Nistru. About 350,000 citizens live there. Most of them are our citizens and they risk remaining without heat and electricity. And this can turn into a humanitarian catastrophe. Because they are our citizens, we have to find a solution for a possible crisis there. It can happen if Gazprom will not be able to honor its contractual obligations,” Dorin Recean said at the beginning of the Cabinet meeting.
The request to increase the natural gas charges is the second source of the crisis, according to the Prime Minister. “I know that there are a lot of questions regarding this request to increase gas charges. There are many questions: how the purchases were made in summer, autumn and so on. And the citizens’ expectations are valid. It is normal for these questions to be clarified. Answers will be given during the planned parliamentary hearings,” stated the official.
Dorin Recean assured that the Government of the Republic of Moldova will stand by the citizens.
Moldovagaz requested the National Agency for Energy Regulation to increase the natural gas charge by about 40%, from 10.049 lei/m³ to 14.038 lei/m³ (excluding VAT). The request was to be examined on Wednesday, but the Agency postponed the meeting to Friday.
Commentator Vyacheslav Ioniță noted that the NAER breaks the legal deadlines stipulated in the case of changes in charges. The Agency must allow a minimum of 15 working days for public consultations, after which it should allocate time to analyze all the received comments. Although the law does not set a clear deadline, in practice at least 5-10 working days are required for this stage. After the completion of the analysis, the NAER is obliged to announce a public meeting to examine the charges at least 5 working days before it takes place. This deadline is essential to allow all interested parties to prepare any additional arguments. Ioniță urges civil society and the press to closely follow this process and to report the deviations. If the meeting takes place before the legal deadline, it is imperative that the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office investigate the situation and determine whether the law was violated. The citizens must demand transparency and compliance with legal procedures. Decisions that affect millions of people cannot be taken in a non-transparent and abusive way. The NAER, in an illegal meeting, wants to add 2 billion lei to the natural gas charge.
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