Price of electricity in Serbia to be increased by 10% on March 1st

- The Minister of Energy and Mining in the Government of Serbia, Petar Škundrić, announced yesterday (January 29, 2010) that the Government had given consent for the request of the Electric Power Company of Serbia (EPS) for increase in the price of electricity by 10% at average on March 1st - it is stated on the website of the Government of Serbia.

Škundrić pointed out at the press conference, which was held after the meeting of the Government, that the price of electricity would be increased by 0.59 RSD per kWh, VAT included, that is, that the price of electricity for the economy sector would be increased by 9%, while the price for households would be 11% higher.

He specified that 1 kWh of electricity cost approximately 4.5 eurocents at the moment, and he reminded that the previous increase in the price of electricity in Serbia had taken place on August 1st, 2008, when the the price of electricity was raised by 8.9% at average.

The Minister said that the factors they had in mind when making the decision on increase in the price of electricity were: the macroeconomic situation achieved thanks to the Government's measures, the contribution that EPS had given, as well as weather conditions as the reason for bigger consumption of energy.

According to his words, possible second increase in the price of electricity in 2010 will depend on the situation in the economy and whether the trend of growth will be continued.

Škundrić invited citizens to save electricity and other fuels for their own sake and for the sake of normal functioning of the power supply system.

- I think that the price increase that was determined today can be annulled with the rational attitude and smaller electricity consumption because it is not that hard to reduce consumption by 10% - the Minister estimated.

He pointed out that the price of electricity in Serbia was lower than in the other countries of the region, except in Macedonia, and added that the price of electricity in Croatia was twice as big as in Serbia, while the price in Hungary and Slovakia was nearly 3 times more expensive than in our country.

Škundrić announced that the citizens and the economy owed over 1 billion EUR for electricity to EPS, while EPS had paid approximately 200m EUR worth of taxes on unpaid claims over the previous eight years.