The head of the Ministry of Energy, Yury Vytrenko, announced the department's proposal to reduce gas prices for the population. So, from February, it is proposed to limit the price for "vulnerable" consumers to the level of "hub minus" with the addition of a marginal surcharge for suppliers and to fix such a price per hour.
"According to our calculations, the price is UAH 5356 (per 1000 cubic meters), which is 44% less than the weighted average price in January. If nothing is done, then one should expect that the price will increase by approximately 15% in February," he wrote in Facebook.
According to him, the state-owned company Ukrazdobycha will sell gas to suppliers for "vulnerable" consumers at the "hub minus" price, the price will be revised once an hour based on stock exchange quotations in November.
"Suppliers will be able to compete by offering a smaller markup to this price. Consumers will also be able to freely choose their supplier, and if they are not considered "vulnerable" consumers, they will be able to choose contracts not with a fixed hourly price, but any other contracts," Vytrenko added.
Now the proposal of the Ministry of Energy is under discussion.
"There may be "pitfalls", in particular legal restrictions; it is important to consider all risks, in particular the risk of manipulation by suppliers; we need to calmly explain to the IMF that we are talking about adequate market measures, and not about rolling back; it is also desirable to attract international partners for joint pressure on Gazprom and others," Vytrenko wrote.
At the same time, he added that the Ministry of Energy is ready to consider alternative proposals if they solve the problems in the market better and faster.
It should be noted that Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced this method of reducing gas prices the day before, but he did not specify how much it would help to reduce the price.
Meanwhile, the day before, protests against high tariffs were held in 10 regions of Ukraine.
