Gas prices up 5-8 pct starting with July 1

Newsroom 23/04/2015 | 15:20

The final price of natural gas paid by household consumers will increase by 5-8 percent as of July 1, said on Thursday Niculae Havrilet, president of the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), according to Mediafax.

The increase is caused by the price liberalization for natural gas production, process undertaken by the Government with the European Commission (EC) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Romania has committed to the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund to eliminate the regulated prices for gas and electricity. The gas market has been liberalized for companies on January 1, 2014, so that at the moment only the population receives gas at regulated prices.

According to the timetable agreed by the Government in 2011 with the IMF and the EC, gas price for household consumers should have increased from RON 53.3 (EUR 12) MW/h in July 2014 to RON 54.6 (EUR 12.3) in October 2014, to RON 56.1 (EUR 12.7) in January 2015, to RON 58.9 (EUR 13.3) in April 2015 and to RON 62 (EUR 14) in July 2015.

The government wants to extend the timetable for the regulated prices’ removal by three years, until June 30, 2021.