Decision to stop regulating petrol prices in Ukraine may help stabilize market in coming weeks - deputy head of Zelensky's Office
KYIV. May 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The Ukrainian government's decision to stop regulating petrol prices will allow the market to stabilize within the next few weeks, deputy head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday.
At the same time, the authorities do not anticipate a drastic increase in petrol prices, as petrol stations' operators pledged at the government's meeting to contain gasoline and diesel prices at the level of 50 hryvni-60 hryvni per liter.
"The government met with representatives of all petrol station chains. I can say that they pledged to avert a rise in prices, because they understand that now is not the time to make money, but it is the time to sate the market and to provide people with petrol," Tymoshenko said.
If petrol is sold at higher prices, there will be an appropriate reaction both from the authorities and law enforcement agencies, he said.
However, one should not expect any immediate effect from the government's decision to stop regulating petrol prices, but the situation on this market will stabilize in the coming weeks, he said.
"We will see the results in a few weeks' time and will forget about this issue altogether in a month," he said.
It was announced on Thursday that the government terminated a quarantine resolution point that set the limit for markups on the average prices of gasoline and diesel fuel sold at petrol stations.
This decision is formalized in Resolution KMU No. 594, dated May 17, 2022, which was published on the government's website on Thursday.
As reported, in May 2021, during the Covid-19 quarantine in Ukraine, the government introduced state regulation of prices at petrol stations, setting the limits for markups on the average retail petrol prices. The Economy Ministry, in turn, published the country's average prices for a liter of diesel and gasoline three times a month. As of mid-May, given the existing markup limit, the maximum price of "ordinary" gasoline sold via chains of petrol stations should not exceed 39.86 hryvni per liter, and 42.31 hryvni per liter of "ordinary" diesel fuel.
The Ukrainian government's operative headquarters on May 17 decided to stop regulating petrol prices. It does not expect gasoline prices to exceed 52 hryvni per liter and diesel prices 58 hryvni per liter.
The decision to lift the markup limits for petrol stations was adopted in order to enable market operators to provide the market with required amounts of petroleum products amid shortages.