Head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to Serbia James Roaf said that Serbian citizens should get used to the adjustment of regulated electricity prices from year to year.
Roaf said that answering the question whether there had been discussions with the Serbian officials regarding the increase of electricity prices, adding that IMF is not relevant to discuss that matter, and the Government should discuss it with the World Bank. He added that IMF mission discussed the restructuring of state-owned power utility EPS, noting that the increase in regulated prices of electricity from year to year is normal practice in many countries around the world.
Resident representative of the IMF in Serbia Daehaeng Kim added that the price of electricity is just one element of EPS’ business operations and stated that he hopes that the public will pay more attention to the restructuring of the company, which is the key issue here. Because, when EPS want to improve and increase its investments and no savings could be achieved, it means that someone else, namely the citizens, will have to pay for that.
At the meeting with the Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Aleksandar Antic last week, IMF mission indicated that it is necessary to make further efforts in the implementation of restructuring and financial stabilization of state-owned power utility EPS and that the process needs to speed up. It was also agreed that the problem of redundant employees at EPS should be resolved through early retirement and voluntary departure of employees. It is expected that some 2,000 employees will leave the company by the end of the year, transmits Serbia-energy.eu
