Romgaz and Nuclearelectrica could benefit from a decrease in the level of dividend distribution, from 90% to 50%, and the resulting funds will be used for investments, said on Tuesday, Mihai Călin Precup, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Finance.

“Among the Directions I lead, one of the Directions is the State Equity Management Service and just yesterday I had a Government Decision on my desk to make a derogation for Nuclearelectrica and Romgaz, being strategic companies, to reduce that level of distribution of dividends from 90%, as predicted in previous years, at least in the last two years, to 50% so that we will provide additional financial sources to the two strategic companies. Romgaz will be able to benefit from an additional 462 million lei for investments, and Nuclearelectrica from an additional 307 million lei this year for investments,” said Mihai Călin Precup, according to financialintelligence.ro.

He said Romania should focus externally on cooperation with neighboring states on energy and interconnection issues. Internally, Romania will try to focus on two major directions in terms of energy investments: natural gas and electricity.

The Secretary of State mentioned that both energy production and energy saving are important. He said that in the last 12 years the European Investment Bank has signed energy efficiency loans with District 1, 2, 4 and 6 in Bucharest and several local city halls, and the existing debt stock is of 776 million euros. In addition, there are loans under implementation from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development of 118 million euros, according to Agerpres.

He called on companies to send projects to interconnect gas and electricity networks with neighboring countries.