PAS CALLS ON ANTICORRUPTION PROSECUTION TO PUNISH ANRE HEADS

The Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) sued to the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office on Monday with the demand to attract the National Energy Regulatory Agency leadership to criminal responsibility.

The party leader Maia Sandu wrote in social networks that the ANRE did not conduct correction of tariffs on natural gas in 2016-2017, though it had to do this in accordance with changes in the Moldovan leu exchange rate and lowering of world prices on energy resources.

"ANRE actions led to the fact that consumers overpaid to Moldovagaz over 1.5 billion lei", the politician wrote.

According to her, state institutions that work at the expense of citizens, should act for the good of people, while officials, who care only about their own interests, should respond before the law.

"If the Government does not resolve this problem, it will be definitely resolved by the PAS, once it gets in power after the 2018 parliamentary elections", Sandu said.

Infotag's dossier: The last time the ANRE has revised the natural gas tariff was January 2016, when it lowered it by 10.9% - to 5545 lei from 6222 lei per 1 thousand cubic meters. At calculating, the ANRE took into account the average purchasing price of the Russian gas in 2016 worth US$199.72 per 1 thousand cubic meters and a rate of 21 leu per US$1. According to the regulation, the Agency has to revise the tariff if the national currency exchange rate changes at least 5% and if the natural gas price changes. Since then, the Moldovan leu strengthened almost 20%, while the purchasing price on gas fell to US$174 per 1 thousand cubic meters.