The Fiscal Council warns that the current electricity and gas prices are unsustainable. That body states that, in order for the electric power system not to collapse, it is necessary for electricity for households and the economy to rise by 15 to 20 percent. While the price of gas for households should be 65 to 70 percent higher, according to the Fiscal Council. However, no one was responsible for the losses incurred by EPS.
The price of gas must increase, because the raw material has become more expensive, says the chief economist of the Fiscal Council, Danko Brčerević. He adds that the purchase price of gas used to be 250 dollars per thousand cubic meters, and now it is more than 350.
We do not produce gas. Over 90 percent of the gas is imported at a good price, that is indisputable. “It is related to oil, not to the market movement of gas, which has simply exploded in the last six months, but the price of oil has also increased,” explains Brčerević.
The loss of EPS and Srbijagas in the previous heating season amounts to one billion euros, so citizens should, as a last resort, expect a 10 to 40 percent increase in heating prices this winter.
“The people who managed EPS are to blame, and even more so those who allowed them to manage EPS, i.e. the authorities in Serbia.” That part of the government that held and supported the previous set, knowing what kind of people and what kind of management it is. In the last six months, EPS raised 650 million euros in loans in order to be able to pay for the accidents with TENT. The rest are the huge prices that Srbijagas had to pay when it imported gas at market prices to Serbia, at these record prices,” explains the journalist of the newspaper Danas Aleksandar Milošević, explaining how EPS found itself in this situation.
EPS has been reducing its production for decades, while consumption is increasing at the same time, so a collapse would have to happen sooner or later. This was shown in December, when import prices were very high, which pushed the company into an additional loss, says Brčerević.
He adds that if the price of electricity does not rise, EPS will continue to decline. In order to improve the situation, he suggests three steps.
“First, the reform of the EPS and everything that it entails.” That’s a serious twist. Second, this increase in current, which we think is justified and necessary, and then third – to simply make a turn. Not cheap electricity for everyone. The one who can pay, and the one who can’t, let the state protect him, so that his health and standard of living are not threatened due to this increase. And those are the three basic principles,” suggests the chief economist of the Fiscal Council.
Professor of the Faculty of Economics Ljubodrag Savić told N1 that in the 40 years he has been teaching at the faculty, such a loss of EPS has not been recorded, and that last year’s accidents will “cost the citizens a lot” and that “we are yet to pay for them”, writes N1.
