| The Ministry of Economic Development does not have time to implement energy reform The state heeded criticism from independent electricity producers against the Ministry of Economic Development regarding the failure to meet the deadlines for implementing the energy reform. The created government commission under the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko yesterday, at its first working meeting, decided to speed up the preparation of the regulatory framework for creating a competitive electricity market and will now meet every week to “catch up on the delays.”
Deputy Minister of Economic Development Andrei Sharonov, who participated in the meeting, admitted that “there is a shift in deadlines” for certain items of the program of the first stage of reforms. Viktor Khristenko added that, for example, the discussed draft government decree “On the basics of pricing for heat and electricity” “was supposed to celebrate the New Year,” but it still has not been prepared. The commission intends to finally approve this project at the next meeting, and “next week the document should be signed by the chairman of the government,” Mr. Khristenko concluded.
The draft resolution focuses on the principles for determining energy prices in the newly created energy market and when concluding direct contracts between producers and consumers. However, as the Deputy Prime Minister stated, these criteria will begin to apply only with the entry into force of a package of laws developed in the process of reforming the industry. When this will happen, Mr. Khristenko did not specify.
The draft basic law of the industry - “On the Electric Power Industry” - will be discussed at the next meeting of the reform commission. The plan for the first stage of energy reform will also be specified there (it will be supplemented, and those responsible for the development of some measures will be replaced). At the same time, as Andrei Sharonov told the Vremya Novostei newspaper, there will be no increase in the timing of the first stage. “The first stage is designed for several years, and the lag so far is only one or two months,” he clarified. Nikolay GORELOV |
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