Gas price to remain unchanged before May
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, March 12
Minister of Energy Kakhi Kaladze claims that the gas price will not increase for commercial entities before May, 2015. According to him preserving the current cost was because of the state budget subsidy worth 15 million GEL to the gas providers.
“Otherwise they would have experienced serious losses,” Kaladze said.
Head of the Business Association Lasha Papashvili, has appealed to the government to somehow preserve the current gas tariff.
He made the statement during a meeting with the minister.
“I know that there are some other factors that should be taken into account, providers among them. However, preserving the current price is of the utmost importance,” Papashvili said.
The minister also commented on the audit of ENERGO-PRO Georgia by the Ministry of Finance.
JSC ENERGO-PRO Georgia is the daughter company of ENERGO-PRO a.s. and a member of the ENERGO-PRO Group, which unites electricity generation and distribution utilities in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Georgia and Turkey.
The minister denied any pressure on the company and stated that the ministry does its job.
“The business sector is no longer suppressed in Georgia as it was under the previous government. If there is some controversy, it will be settled through legal measures,” Kaladze said.
The minister stated that postponing the ratification of the Georgian-EU Association Agreement at Czech parliament was not due to the process.
Deputy Foreign Minister Davit Jalaghania hopes that company issues will not affect the ratification process and the Czech parliament will ratify the document on March 12.
The Finance Ministry Press Service states that only the company has a right to reveal the details of the ongoing process between the company and the ministry.
The Czech media speculates that the company and the Georgia’s Foreign Ministry argued over 50 million GEL.
