Georgian PM admits govt cannot halve prices for natural gas, electricity
TBILISI. Nov 22 (Interfax) - Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has admitted that the Georgian Dream coalition's election promises to halve prices for natural gas and electricity cannot be kept so far.
"As for the tariffs, unfortunately it would be impossible to reduce them by half," Ivanishvili said at a press conference on Thursday.
He said the process of reducing the prices has been dragged out, but the work to this end is continuing.
"We are continuing to work to reduce the tariffs. We have not yet been able to determine how the prices are formed for electricity and gas. I can say that it will certainly be impossible to halve the tariffs, as I expected, and it looks like our words were too big," Ivanishvili said.
The new government will still try to lower the prices, although not by half as it promised, he said.
It was reported earlier that the new Georgian government did not intend to review the contracts with Russia's Inter RAO UES and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) owning major power and energy facilities in Georgia.
Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said these companies are among the largest investors in Georgia, and the government is not considering reviewing the contracts with them.
Kvirikashvili said also that the setting of consumer prices for electricity and other energy resources is within the jurisdiction of the National Energy Regulating Commission. "Only this agency is entitled to revise a private company's tariff policy and, if there is the necessary resource, to demand that the tariff be lowered," he said.
Inter RAO owns 75.08% in the Tbilisi electricity distribution company Telasi and a number of power facilities, including the two most powerful units of the Tbilisi District Power Plant and the Khrami-1 and Khrami-2 hydropower plants.
SOCAR is the primary supplier of natural gas, oil and oil products to Georgia. SOCAR's subsidiaries own an oil terminal at the Kulevi port and are expanding and modernizing gas distribution systems and the development of a network of fuel stations operating under the SOCAR brand name.
