Moldovan parliament to amend law on oil market

Chisinau, 12 August /MOLDPRES/- Parliament's committee on economy, budget and finance approved at today's meeting a report on project aimed at removing shortcomings in existing legislation that generate risk situations. At the same time, the project preserves the basic concept of the policy of forming prices for petroleum products by capping them, but only in the part on retail sale of the main petroleum products.

The project's authors propose that the law expressly and unequivocally indicate that the maximum retail prices of main petroleum products are set by the National Agency for Energy Regulation (ANRE), based on the Methodology for calculating and applying prices to petroleum products.

Thus, the deputies propose that the maximum retail price be set for the main products of the standard type (COR 95 petrol and diesel) and be calculated and published daily on the ANRE website. According to the authors, as a result, the wholesale market for fuels, as well as the retail prices of liquefied gas and all other types of products except the basic ones, will become free.

At the same time, the retail sale of other types of main petroleum products than those for which the maximum prices are set will be allowed only on condition of the sale at the same station and of the standard type products. Under these conditions, the state will provide the consumer with petroleum products of strict necessity at regulated, reasonable, transparent, non-discriminatory and easy to compare prices, respecting the established quality parameters, and on the other hand will offer them the possibility to freely choose alternative products. .

Also, in order to relax the conditions for obtaining the license, it is proposed to reduce by 5 times the mandatory storage capacity that an importer must meet, namely from 5 thousand m3 to 1000 m3. At the same time, another legislative initiative is needed to ensure the energy security of the state in terms of providing oil products in crisis situations.

The project establishes that ANRE may adjust the commercial margin in case of occurrence of factors that could not have been foreseen at the time of the previous approval and that it may intervene in the margin structure not more than 10% of the average actually registered by the operators.

MPs conclude that the proposed changes will benefit all parties involved, consumers, operators and the regulator, and their implementation will not require additional costs.

Photo: Parliament