It Is Not True That the Price of Electricity Has Not Changed In 4 Years

The statement of the Prime Minister that the price of electricity in Macedonia has not changed in the last four years is incorrect. Namely, the price of electricity in the last two years has doubled following a decision of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), where one of these increases was mitigated by reducing taxes, but the second increase was real

 

 

Talking about the global energy crisis and the rise in the price of electricity on world stock exchanges, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev gave the following statement on the Sitel News:

You see, for four years the price of electricity has not changed, unlike some 8 months ago, the electricity has increased four to five times on the international stock exchanges, and in our country the price is the same. So the citizens should stay calm and not be afraid at all.

[Source: YouTube, date: 25 October 2021]

 

(From minute 18:20 to 19:00)

 

EXPLANATION:

The statement of the Prime Minister that the price of electricity in Macedonia has not changed in the past four years is incorrect. Namely, the price of electricity in the last two years has doubled following a decision of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), where one of these increases was levelled by reducing taxes, but the second increase was real.

ERC President Marko Bislimoski informed the public on 31 July 20220 that from 1 August 2020, the price of electricity will increase by 7.4 percent.

We know that with this decision to increase the price of electricity, we will affect all end consumers. Now the bill, for example, of 1,500 denars, will increase for additional 100 denars, calculated Bislimovski.

The reason for the increase in the price of electricity, as Bislimovski pointed out, was the coronavirus pandemic, which had a negative impact on the profits of power companies and power plants in terms of selling surplus electricity across the border.

On 30 June 2021, as Bislimovski announced, the ERC decided that the price of electricity would increase by an additional 12.36 percent. However, this increase was mitigated by the decision of the Government to reduce the VAT on electricity from 18 to 5 percent in order for the citizens not to receive drastically higher bills.

The increase of the price of electricity without VAT from 18 to 5% will be 12.36%, and with the VAT compensation there is room for a slight reduction of the final bills of the citizens, confirmed Bislimoski.

According to this, the second increase in electricity bills was levelled with the reduction of VAT, but, nevertheless, the previous increase from last year, of 7.4 percent, actually happened. It is also true that in the world electricity markets the prices have meanwhile increased several times and with a higher percentage than the one in our country. However, it cannot be said that the price of electricity in the last 4 years “has not changed.” The growth of the price of electricity of 7.4 percent from 1 August 2020 has indeed happened.

Hence, we can conclude that the statement of Prime Minister Zaev is untrue.

 

Assessed by: Ana Anastasovska

 

 

 

 

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