Decision to increase electricity tariffs for population to be made within week – Minister
During the week before the end of May, the government will make a final decision on the size of new electricity tariffs for household consumers, Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko said at the question hour for the government in the Verkhovna Rada on Friday.
"This issue is being considered, today we are making final calculations, the decision will be made in the next week, that is, by the end of May," the minister said.
According to him, the most likely scenario when establishing new tariffs will be the use of a differentiated approach to consumers depending on the volume of electricity used.
"We are now considering a differentiated approach. I don't think that one tariff will simply be replaced by another - there will be differentiation depending on the volume of electricity consumption," Haluschenko noted.
As he informed, the government is currently calculating additional revenues from increasing tariffs to the budget, as well as for financial balancing of the energy market.
"There are calculations, we are verifying them from the point of view of what additional revenues the state budget will receive in terms of the corresponding payment of dividends by these two companies (JSC Energoatom and PrJSC Ukrhydroenergo) and from the point of view of balancing the entire energy market," the Minister of Energy added.
He explained that the current level of electricity tariffs for the population does not cover the cost of its production, in particular by Energoatom and Ukrhydroenergo companies, which pay the difference between the market price of a kilowatt-hour and tariffs for the population as part of fulfilling obligations to ensure the availability of electricity for household consumers.