At today’s session, the government decided that gas prices for households will not be increased.
The government on Tuesday adopted a decision on the price of gas. Although there were rumours that the price of gas for households could be increased substantially due to the liberalization of gas market, the pressure from the public and the fact that local elections will be held in May were enough to force the government to freeze the price of gas, reports Večernji List on February 28, 2017.
The price of gas which was determined today will be valid for the period from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018.
The government’s decision is obviously good news for consumers who use gas in their homes for heating and other purposes, and both parties of the ruling coalition, HDZ and MOST, are trying to take credit for it, not surprisingly given that local elections are less than three months away.
Speaker of Parliament and MOST leader Božo Petrov immediately wrote a post on Facebook in which he tried to claim credit for the government’s decision. “The issue of gas market has burdened Croatian citizens for many years. Minister of Environmental Protection and Energy Slaven Dobrović and State Secretary for Energy Ante Čikotić, after many months of hard work, have managed to prevent a significant increase in the price of gas”, wrote Petrov. Needless to say, both Dobrović and Čikotić are members of MOST.
“The most important objective was to prevent an attack on the living standard of citizens, but at the same time not to harm business operations of our energy companies, such as HEP and Plinacro. After we recently withdraw nearly a billion kuna from European funds for the LNG terminal project on the island of Krk, this is another great success of MOST’s team at the Ministry of Energy. This proves that a solution can always be found, and that the interests of all Croatian citizens are always a priority for us. You have my full support, we will continue with our dedicated work”, wrote Petrov on Facebook, with the last part of his post presumably being directed to Dobrović and Čikotić.
Shortly after the publication of Petrov’s post, the government issued its own official statement, in which the credit is instead given to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. “At today’s session, the government adopted a decision on the price of gas. In accordance with the instructions given by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy has conducted discussions with all stakeholders involved in the structure of gas prices, and based on the today’s decision, the price of gas for households will remain the same”, said the government in its statement.
