Moldovan President Maia Sandu has submitted to parliament a draft law that will allow reducing natural gas tariffs by eliminating unjustified, in her opinion, expenses totaling 150 million lei.
In particular, the legislative initiative of the head of state envisages amendments to the Law on Natural Gas, providing that the tariffs will exclude the cost of depreciation of fixed assets and intangible assets that were formed as a result of the revaluation of assets. The new bill allows only one-time reimbursement of the original cost of fixed assets and intangible assets at the time of establishment of the enterprise, including subsequent investments. It is stipulated that when determining the cost of depreciation of fixed assets and intangible assets, the value resulting from the revaluation of assets, the value of assets paid by consumers, and the value of assets received free of charge as gifts and grants are not taken into account. “The property revaluation procedure was previously applied by Moldovagaz JSC in 2009. This fact allowed the company to unreasonably include depreciation costs totaling more than 150 million lei in the natural gas tariffs without making these investments. I consider it unacceptable to increase tariffs for consumers by using gaps in legislation. The tariffs should indicate only reasonable expenses that should ensure the normal functioning of regulated enterprises,” the head of state said. It is planned that this initiative of the President will also reduce the tariff for gas transit and will stimulate an increase in the volume of gas transit through the territory of Moldova. This is important for increasing revenues from transit and maintaining the functional state of the main gas pipelines. The draft law proposed by Maia Sandu will undergo a public consultation procedure and will take effect, if passed in parliament, after being published in Monitorul Oficial (the Official Journal of Moldova). // 19.0.2021 – InfoMarket
