site.btaBulgargaz to Refund LV 201 Mln to Its Clients - PM

Sofia, June 8 (BTA) - State-owned gas company Bulgargaz will
refund 201 million leva to its clients. "We are paying back
201,685,227 leva," Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said at the
start of an extraordinary meeting of the government on Monday.
The meeting was held for the purpose of discussing how the
Bulgargaz clients will get refunds after the state-owned
supplier and Russia's Gazprom agreed on a lower gas price,
retroactively.

Borissov said that there are no more intermediaries for
Bulgaria's gas pipes. "For this reason, the price of natural gas
 as of June 1, 2020, is 52 per cent lower than this time last
year," he added.

Of these 201 million leva, the Sofia heating utility will
receive a 60 million refund. Gas distribution companies will get
 22 million leva, the chemical industry 52 million leva and the
glass industry 16 million leva, said the Prime Minister.

Bulgargaz has already received a refund from Gazprom following
the March 2020 agreement for a decrease of the gas price as of
August 2019 by over 40 per cent, and now it has to distribute
the money among its clients, who have paid the higher price
applicable prior to the agreement. On June 2, the gas company
sent out draft agreements to its clients indicating how much it
owes them for the period from August 5, 2019 to March 31, 2020,
and has said that it is ready to make the payments before
waiting out the statutory 14-day period from the signing of the
agreements. NV/LN/