Govt expands effect of gas price of UAH 6.99 per cubic meter to homeowner associations

 The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has expanded the effect of the ceiling price for natural gas of UAH 6.99 UAH per cubic meter in February-March 2021 to homeowner associations.

The decision, with revision within two days, was made by the Cabinet at a meeting on Wednesday.

According to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, some homeowner associations may be subject to pubic special obligations (PSO), so the document "must very clearly define and differentiate between gas for households and gas for business."

According to an explanatory note to the document, which was prepared by the Ministry of Energy, despite the introduction of a free market for households from August 2020, the majority of residential consumers did not change their supplier, remaining customers of regional gas sales companies.

According to the ministry, in August-December 2020, due to the dominant position in regional gas sales (the share is over 90%), households overpaid UAH 8.4 billion or UAH 670 per subscriber for gas. In particular, the average price of regional gas sales companies is 36% higher than that of Naftogaz Ukrainy.

In January 2021, due to extreme cold weather, the price of gas in European markets increased significantly, which may lead to its growth for vulnerable consumers of the country by 14%, with an increase in gas payments in February by UAH 175. In this regard, the government set the ceiling gas price for household consumers.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua