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07.12.2007 14:49
Press office of President Victor Yushchenko
Oleksandr Shlapak: New natural gas prices require draft Budget Law 2008 revisionAccording to Oleksandr Shlapak, deputy chief of Presidential Secretariat, new natural gas prices require draft Budget Law 2008 revision. “We evidently will be forced to modify budgetary relations, as so called smoothing down subsidies had been calculated based upon a slightly lower price (160$). We will be forced to change pricing parameters for budget subsidized organizations as well as they consume nearly 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas.” O. Shlapak reminded that President Victor Yushchenko more than once has appealed to the government to think over gas consumption optimisation policy. That means to work out a configuration of internal gas market under new conditions which shall provide an opportunity to calculate gas prices for industry, municipal sector and population. O. Shlapak noted that 20$ difference in price compared to that, provided by the draft budget “is not critical, however it shall affect virtually every parameter of the budget.” Speaking about the possibility to revise gas prices for Ukraine, O. Shlapak said that it is up to Prime Minister to rise up this question should the grounds for that arise. However to Mr. Shlapak’s opinion the agreement has been already signed and it is “severe for Ukraine although far from the worst”. According to O. Shlapak Ukraine must get used to the fact that gas prices shall be rising even further until they have reached global levels. “Global economy development and European economy’s in particular, currently outrun the development of energy capabilities. That means there will be a constant energy resources shortage with their prices unfortunately rising further. With the prices slightly lower than our neighbours face we have a year or two to prepare ourselves for realistic competitive environment”, - he said. |
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