Moldovan energy regulator complies with Chisinau court's ruling, cuts prices for petrol, diesel

16:00 | 13.06.2018 Category: Economic

Chisinau, 13 June /MOLDPRES/ - The National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) has complied with a ruling by the Chisinau Court on the suspension of the fulfillment of ANRE’s Order on increasing the prices for petrol and diesel and returned to the prices for fuels set on 15 May. ANRE announced a ceiling selling retail price for the most demanded Premium-95 petrol at 19.15 lei for one litre and for diesel at 17.09 lei for 13-26 June.

The ceiling selling retail prices for the principal oil products announced by ANRE entered into force at 15:01 today.

The Chisinau Court, headquartered in the capital’s Buiucani district, on 12 June evening suspended ANRE’s yesterday’s order, under which the regulatory authority increased the ceiling price for fuels by over 0.30 lei for one litre up to 19.49 lei for one litre of Premium-95 petrol and 17.41 lei for diesel.

The Economics and Infrastructure Ministry’s (MEI) information and media communication service told MOLDPRES that ANRE’s decision had been suspended after, on 12 June, MEI, jointly with the Agency for Consumer’s Protection and Market Supervision asked the court to cancel ANRE’s order and suspend its fulfillment till the issuance of an irrevocable ruling.

Following the consideration of ANRE’s Order, MEI considers that the latter was issued contrary to legal provisions and namely without being subjected to public consultations with interested sides, in order to observe the principle of transparency in the decision-making process and analysis of the factors which contribute to the increase in prices for oil products. In this way, premises were created to cause irretrievable damage to end consumers.

Under the Article 16 of the Law No 174 on energy, the meetings of ANRE’s administrative board, the participants in which consider draft normative acts on regulation, applications on basic costs, on regulated prices, regulated tariffs or decisions which can have impact on the energy market and on the obligations of public service are to be publicly consulted, reads a press release by the ministry.

Thus, the revision of ceiling selling retail prices for the main oil products represents a subject of public interest; the revision is to be preceded by an operation of public consultation.

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcaza)

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