The financial condition of the state-owned “Mini Maritsa-East” is deteriorating. The state will pay the wages of the workers until the summer of next year, when the unions expect a plan to be adopted to control the crisis in the enterprise.
On Thursday, BEH transferred BGN 16 million to the company for salaries for September, and in November another BGN 28 million is to be transferred for October salaries. In the summer, BGN 56 million was already granted. Thus, this year the company will receive a loan of BGN 100 million for workers’ salaries from the Bulgarian Energy Holding. Another hundred million will be paid next year.
The production of the state mines for the first six months of the year has decreased by more than 50%, writes BNT.
“The mines can’t make ends meet, that’s obvious. The money you’re talking about, loans from the bank and loans from BEH, will be quite useful to get to spring and summer,” explained Alexander Zagorov, CT “Support” .
However, it is not clear whether the company will return the loan to BEH, which also bought part of the debts of the capital heating company from Bulgargaz.
“The bad thing is that these loans are very often forgiven and become a cross-subsidization of these companies. A very harmful mechanism, a very harmful principle that violates market rules,” commented Dr. Ivan Hinovski, chairman of BEMF.
However, the unions hope that despite the difficult situation, the mines will have a chance to survive with other production.
“They were very late, to put it mildly. Things have been delayed to some critical point. The population is already used to the fact that nothing happens there, we started writing off “Maritsa-East” as a possible producer of electricity, this is not the case at all. “Maritsa- “East” will have its renaissance, coal will be a small part of it”, said Alexander Zagorov.
However, the lack of a comprehensive policy in the field of energy remains a problem.
“People who want to help with something turn to us, they clearly have no one else to turn to. Apparently, all the authorities have started to work – each in its own territory, to dig, as they say, in its loophole and the commitment between the authorities is not present”, pointed out Alexander Zagorov.
According to the financial report of the mines, the company continues to accumulate serious losses. By the end of June, the accumulated loss was over BGN 213 million. Separately, the company did not pay its concession fee to the state for the use of minerals. The situation is further worsened due to the delayed renegotiation of the Recovery and Sustainability Plan, thus our country may lose BGN 1 billion for the reclamation of the mine sites. Now this money must be paid from the state budget.
“If you ask me, this is the biggest crime in energy today. In the state, nobody has the courage, we go from election campaign to election campaign, and none of the politicians dare to say: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to realize the gradual policy of liquidation,” said Ivan Hinovski.
We asked the Ministry of Energy for a comment with questions about the status of the other companies in the energy sector and the Bulgarian Energy Holding. From there they refused to answer the questions.
“It will be very interesting what will happen when the “rich” companies “Bulgartransgaz” and ESO, which are the main blood donors of the Bulgarian Energy Holding, leave. What will happen to the holding and to this policy of supporting failed companies”, asks Ivan Hinovsky.
The withdrawal of “Bulgartransgaz” and ESO from BEH is recorded in the latest changes to the Recovery and Sustainability Plan, which have not yet been adopted by the National Assembly.