site.btaPossibility for One-Month Postponement of Electricity and Heat Pricing Period Approved Provisionally

Possibility for One-Month Postponement of Electricity and Heat Pricing Period Approved Provisionally

Sofia, June 23 (BTA) - The parliamentary committee monitoring
the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) approved on
first reading amendments to the transitional and final
provisions of the Energy Act aiming to make it possible for the
electricity and heat pricing period to be postponed by a month.
Apart from three abstentions, the committee vote was all in
favour of the amendments.

Valentin Nikolov (GERB), whose party has moved the bill, said
the intended postponement is aimed to allow EWRC to consider new
 aspects of pricing. Nikolov expects that an ordinance relaxing
the conditions for industrial plants liable to pay a green
electricity charge will be conclusively approved in July after
its scope is enlarged.

Iskren Vesselinov (Patriotic Front), who chairs the
parliamentary committee monitoring EWRC, explained that the
proposed amendments are intended as a one-time change applying
only to the pricing period from July 1, 2015.

Tasko Ermenkov (BSP-Left Bulgaria) said the proposed changes are
 an "emergency publicity stunt" of the government, which has
failed to do its job.

Volen Siderov (Ataka) told journalists that a 20 per cent fee on
 renewable energy power plants, proposed by his party to the
previous Parliament and eventually repealed by the
Constitutional Court, would have provided the resources which
are now lacking in the National Electricity Company.