Naftogaz head considers it necessary to create database of vulnerable gas consumers

Head of the board of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy Andriy Kobolev considers it necessary to create a unified information database of vulnerable consumers in the country, which will contain full information about their income, volumes and cost of consumed natural gas.

He said this during a discussion on the gas market at the Energy Club on Tuesday.

"Our ideology, which we have been promoting for six years, is as follows: if there is a vulnerable consumer, give him or her money. This is done in all developed countries. We consider it necessary to create a database that will allow the government to identify all vulnerable consumers, link them to specific gas consumption and help them. And this in the future will allow us to avoid problems with too rapid growth in prices," the head of Naftogaz said.

At the same time, Kobolev said that today the main obstacle to providing citizens with subsidies in cash is the lack of information about which categories of consumers are vulnerable and why, what are their volumes of gas consumption and what is their cost, as well as what is their income ratio and the cost of consumed gas.

"If now the state decided to give these people money, even the same social services would have a trivial question: is it possible to give the accounts of these consumers? Is it possible to identify them so that we know who and how much money needs to be given to support these people? Unfortunately, at the moment the system is not ready for this," Andriy Kobolev said.

As reported, Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted resolution No. 25 dated January 18, 2021, which introduces the maximum gas price of UAH 6.99 per cubic meter for household consumers (population) in February-March 2021.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua