Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association Chair: Electricity Prices Can Remain Unchanged

Vasl Velev, Chair of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA), has argued that electricity tariffs should remain unchanged in the next pricing period.

In a Thursday interview for TV7, Velev claimed that there was no obstacle, be it of legal or economic nature, for Bulgaria's Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (KEVR) to keep electricity prices unchanged.

Asked to comment on a forthcoming substantial power price hike for industrial consumers, the BICA Chair declared that the industry going bankrupt was a much scarier scenario than the state-owned power utility going bankrupt.

Velev, as cited by investor.bg, insisted that the Bulgarian Energy Exchange (IBEX) had to be launched in order to ensure market prices and then the authorities had to find a way to make traders in electricity pay the "obligation to society" surcharge.

He noted that some 60 000-100 000 jobs would be lost in the energy sector and many companies would be forced to cut salaries and increase prices, unless the energy watchdog gave up on the idea to increase power rates for industrial consumers.

A nationwide protest took place on Wednesday against the planned power price hike through an increase in the "obligation to society" component of the tariffs for industrial consumers.

The protest was organized by the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA), the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (CEIBG), the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA), and the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and was endorsed by the two trade unions, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) and the Podkrepa Labor Confederation, and the Bulgarian Federation of Industrial Energy Consumers (BFIEC).