Prices for electricity and gas in Romania will stay put until April 1 the least, Finance Minister Varujan Vosganian said today in a press conference, after speculations prices will hike in the first months of the year and following a recent increase of gas price.
- Publicitate -
After April 1, the government will consult the country's power market regulator ANRE on the matter. At the end of January ANRE announced that domestic consumers will pay 8.5 percent more for natural gas starting February 1, due to higher imported gas prices and distribution tariffs.
Therefore prices charged by gas supplier Distrigaz Sud reached 989.55 lei per thousand cubic meters for domestic consumers with an annual consumption below 2,400 cubic meters while E.ON Gaz Romania, another provider, charges 983.10 lei per thousand cubic meters, for the same category of consumers.
People with ANRE said the increase was meant to protect consumers in the light of further increases that may take place this year.
The European Commission previously asked Romania to align the price of natural gas from domestic production to the price existing in the European Union, as it had promised to within the EU accession negotiations.
Romania, which joined the bloc on January 1 last year, now imports 38.31 percent of the entire quantity of gas it needs. The rest comes from the domestic production.
The price of the gas produced in Romania stands at 180 U.S. dollars per thousand cubic meters. Imported gas has a price of 370 U.S. dollars per thousand cubic meters.
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