The government almost doubled the tariffs for the population, but they still remain the lowest in Europe. Electricity for the population is still cheaper in our country than in Moldova. Prices for industry and the population still remain different. The price is still not marketable. But it was a step in the right direction.
The deficit will not go away
What happened before that? The price for the population covered only the delivery of electricity. The producers’ share in the tariff was zero. That is, state companies produced electricity, fed it into the grid and did not receive anything for it. Who do you think paid for it?
Conditional Akhmetov does not care about how much the population pays from a high bell tower. He is concerned about prices in the market for industry. Because this is how the tariff is formed, according to which DTEK sells electricity to the system. But tariffs for the population were important for state-owned companies.
And then there were also Russian attacks on power generation, in particular on state CHPPs and HPPs, which need to be restored, and this requires money.
Not to mention the fact that with such ridiculous tariffs, no one was going to save electricity. All appeals to save remained unanswered. Such is already human nature. And the deficit in the system will not go anywhere in the next few years. A higher price should lead to a reduction in consumption. This is how the economy works.
And yes, the shortage is real. There is no export now, so that it is not written about in chat rooms of condominiums or told by taxi drivers. There was export when there was a surplus in the system. With the Russian attacks, it disappeared. A deficit came and imports at full capacity along with it. Imports from the EU, by the way, where the cost of electricity is much higher.
The right method
Of course, if you slept through the Russian attacks, then you can be jealous. You have a wonderful dream and you can ignore the fact of the war itself in the third year of the war. But this will not change the deficit and will not change the situation with the lack of funds in state-owned companies.
Yes, of course there is corruption. But this does not change the situation that repairs need money and that the tariff must be market and that the system must work. You can say as much as you like that as long as there is corruption in state-owned companies, the tariff cannot be increased. But then one day you will find yourself in the dark, but with low rates and a principled position.
The correct method is market tariffs and pressure on the authorities to fight corruption. The closer the tariffs are to the market level, the more incentives society has to subdue the government and prevent theft.
