2024-03-21 22:49:12
- In this, “We continue the change” saw a political attack with the aim of making him no longer finance minister
A deficit of BGN 1 billion in the energy sector must be covered by Finance Minister Asen Vassilev – such a task was assigned to him by the parliament, which adopted a draft decision to take action in connection with the presence of liquidity problems and the impossibility of the Power System Security Fund to fulfill the legal obligations your duties.
Thus, Vassilev must cover the operating deficit of the Fund by March 31, 2024.
The proposal was submitted last week by Boyko Borisov, Delyan Peevski, Delyan Dobrev and Stanislav Anastasov and was included in the agenda of the deputies today. It received the support of all parties, with the exception of “We continue the change – Democratic Bulgaria”.
The topic provoked nearly 4 hours of debates with elements of political attacks and criticism of Finance Minister Asen Vasilev from all parliamentary parties.
In this, “We continue the change” saw a political attack with the aim of making him no longer finance minister.
According to Delyan Dobrev, over the past three years, Vassilev has seized BGN 5.411 billion in dividends from the state energy industry.
“This is not money that has been returned to the business. This is the money that Asen Vassilev personally collected in the budget. The compensations for the business are different funds that are collected and spent in a different order,” pointed out Dobrev.
The energy sector has been bled dry and now is the time to pay the bills. This happened to maintain the illusion that we have a good budget. The other reason is that Asen Vasilev had to change his clothes and support right-wing politics, pointed out Krasimir Valchev from GERB. We are yet to pay for his left-wing populist policy, he added.
According to Iskren Mitev from PP-DB, the topic of covering the deficit in the fund, as well as playing with people’s fear that the price of electricity would rise by 20% from the summer, was for the purpose of discrediting Vassilev.
There were no funds in the capital buffer fund to compensate for such a future increase, and this could lead to a direct increase in electricity prices for households when they enter the free market in the summer.
That is why the BSP requested a one-year postponement of the liberalization of the electricity market for household consumers, leader Cornelia Ninova announced on the sidelines of the parliament.
They are proposing that the free market for residential customers take effect from July 1, 2025, instead of this year.
The reason is that this would make electricity more expensive for households by up to 20%. This, in turn, hid a risk for the economy and for the Eurozone, because it would also increase inflation.
The inflation criteria is precisely the one that our country still does not cover for our entry into the Eurozone.
Ninova pointed out that the commitment to the complete liberalization of the electricity market was recorded in the PPU, but there was no specific date on which it would be fulfilled and postponing the reform by 1 year would not be fatal for the funds that our country should receive under the mechanism .
In the Energy Law it is now written that in 2026 all domestic consumers must enter the free energy market. The law provides that the National Electricity Company (NEK) will cease to be a public electricity supplier from July 1, 2024.
Regulated prices for residential end-users must be applied until December 31, 2025. It is envisaged to compensate residential customers for the costs of purchasing electricity as part of the regulatory process for the period until 2026.
The electricity distribution companies did not have the means to compensate the families for the increase in prices, Dragomir Stoynev pointed out.