Energy prices may increase by 100-120% in April, compared to last year, if no measures are taken, said Dumitru Chisaliita, president of the Intelligent Energy Association (AEI).
“If no action is taken, in our analysis, consumers will face increases of 100-120% in the prices they had last year, it is a certainty we are heading towards that,” he said.
In his opinion, prices should have been capped six months ago and gas exports banned.
“Another very important thing. In 2022, according to the analyzes we made, 64% of the average gas bill of a Romanian goes in various forms to the state – taxes, excises, royalties and so on. So we need a reform of the fiscal system,” added the president of AEI.
He also said that the compensation law was poorly done from the beginning.
“The first normative act (the law on compensation of invoices) was a wrong one. Although there have been quite a few misconceptions about this mistake since it was written, it has been applied, and when the results were seen, meaning – the bills received in January, this crisis appeared, this situation, which, I repeat, was predictable and we can find it in the various declarations taken since October. It was an act poorly done from the beginning”, said Chisăliţă, according to Agerpres.
Authorities, instead of acknowledging that it was a bad law, came up with all sorts of elements to hide this fact, he continued.
“That the bills were wrong, that the suppliers did, that they didn’t … So unfortunately we continued to lie. In order to solve a problem, we must first get out of the lying area, because otherwise we will never distinguish truth from falsehood,” he said.
Chisalita does not expect the new ordinance to reduce the bills by significant amounts, and people will still have to pay large sums.
“As for the draft GEO on offsetting bills, the effects on the gas area will not be significant, because when the February bills come in March, i.e. at the end of winter, consumers will pay more than last year. Then they will not be able to blame the suppliers, the Russians, anyone, and the consumers will be put in front of the accomplished fact and they will only have to pay those bills”, Chisăliţă said.
He pointed out that the way the regulations were made allowed a small number of consumers to benefit from real aid, especially for gas, where bills have a greater share in people’s budgets.
He also said that a positive measure in the GEO on compensation is the support provided to non-household consumers, which will save thousands of SMEs.