ANTIC: Electricity price increase not planned

No increase of the price of electricity is planned at the moment and the probability that the IMF requests thereof will be fulfilled is smaller and smaller, said Aleksandar Antic, Minister of Mining and Energy, on Sunday, January 1, 2017.

– I have to point out that all priorities regarding EPS have been oriented in a wholly different direction than increasing the price of electricity – Antic said during his visit to the Nikola Tesla B thermal power plant (TENT B) in Obrenovac.

As he emphasized, EPS has a plan of fiscal consolidation and certain benchmarks and criteria that need to be met each year, and 2017 imposes further requirements regarding financial savings in EPS in order to make the enterprise more stable and sustainable in the long term.

– EPS now has an excellent state of current solvency, with over RSD 60 billion on its accounts, a part of which is meant for the repair works in progress and those that lie ahead, but the finances are stable at this moment and our priority is to continue optimizing the number of employees. At this moment, we are completing the social program and we expect around 1,900 people to use it to leave EPS – Antic said.

On the other hand, the minister says, the collection of payments has increased, as has the reduction of losses, and these are therefore the priorities at the moment and the key parameters EPS is now aiming for. If we achieve success there, Antic believes, the probability that the IMF’s requests for increasing the price of electricity will be fulfilled will be smaller and smaller.

– I repeat, our priorities lie elsewhere, we have another idea in mind and I believe that these parameters will be reached in 2017 through savings, reduction of losses and further optimization of the number of employees, so, as far as I’m concerned, we are not planning on this date to increase the price of electricity – Antic specified.

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

Međunarodni monetarni fond-MMF Beograd

Elektroprivreda Srbije ad Beograd

Ministry of Mining and Energy

Aleksandar Antic

price of electricity

electricity price increase

IMF

Elektroprivreda Srbije

EPS

social program of EPS