A nice start to 2016 for HEP.
Slovenia has paid 42 million euros after it lost legal proceedings at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. Slovenia owed the money to Croatian state-owned electrical utility company Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP) for undelivered electricity from mid-2002 to April 2003, reports Jutarnji List on January 1, 2016.
The payment was made on Tuesday because any further delays in the payment would create additional interest costs, explained the Slovenian Ministry of Finance. “This dispute has lasted for as many as ten years, and the interest has to be paid on damages which were awarded to HEP. Therefore, it was appropriate to pay the damages as soon as possible so that the interest would not accumulate any further”, the Ministry said in a statement.
Funds for compensation have been partly found in the budget reserves of the Slovenian Ministry of Environment Protection, while the rest was covered by redistributing unused funds from other ministries and other users of budgetary funds.
The Slovenian government on Tuesday adopted a decision that it will ask for the compensation of funds paid to HEP from those Slovenian electricity companies which at the time when Croatia was not receiving the electricity produced at the Krško Nuclear Power Plant exported or sold the electricity to domestic consumers.
Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes issued on 17 December the final verdict according to which Slovenia must pay to Hrvatska Elektropriveda 42 million euros for undelivered electricity from Krško Nuclear Power Plant in the period from 1 July 2002 to 19 April 2003, including the interest which has accumulated through the years.
