Chisinau court suspends ANRE decision on increase in fuel prices

Chisinau, 13 June /MOLDPRES/- The Chisinau Court, Buiucani headquarters, suspended last night the 12 June order of the Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) on increased fuel price ceiling over 0.30 lei per liter.

According to the press service of the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, the ANRE decision was suspended after yesterday, the ministry jointly with the Agency for Consumer Protection and Market Surveillance requested the court to cancel the order, setting new fuel prices higher by 0.34 lei per liter of petrol and by 0.32 lei – diesel. Also, it was requested to suspend the execution of the order until an irrevocable decision was issued.

Following the examination of the ANRE order, MIE believes that it was issued contrary to the legal provisions, without being subject to public consultations with interested parties in order to observe the principle of transparency in the decision-making process and to analyze the factors that contribute to the increase of oil products, creating prerequisites for irrecoverable damage to the final consumer.

Under the Article 16 of the Law no174 on energy, the meetings of the ANRE Board of Directors, which examine the draft regulatory acts, the basic cost claims, regulated prices, regulated tariffs or decisions that may impact on the energy markets and the public service obligations, are to be publicly consulted, a press release reads.

Thus, the revision of the ceiling retail prices of petroleum products is a matter of public interest, preceded by the public consultation.

ANRE established a ceiling selling price for the most demanded Premium-95 petrol at 19.49 lei per litre and for diesel at 17.41 lei for 13-26 June.

On 29 May, ANRE announced a new increase in prices for fuels; yet, in two days, the Agency cancelled its own decision. On 1 June, Pavel Filip asked ANRE for explanations and proposed to cancel the last decision on increasing the tariffs.

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcază)