EnerMin Popescu: Repeat offences of energy suppliers&distributors will be punished at turnover level

The Ministry of Energy will come to Government with an emergency ordinance by which the repeat offences of energy distributors and suppliers will be punished at the level of the company's turnover, announced, on Tuesday, the Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, announced. "I have discussed before at the Ministry, I presented to the Prime Minister, the ANRE [National Energy Regulatory Agency] also agreed, that, by the Ordinance to transpose Directive 944 what we are working on and we will come with it in the Government by Emergency Ordinance, to modify, so that the repeat offences of distributors, of suppliers that overcharge bills, that put estimative prices (...) all these minor things that bother clients, bother Romanians, we want to punish at the level of turnover. (...) The ANRE presented the structure of fines that were given - a 10,000 RON fine that a supplier gets it pays immediately and pretends it never saw it and things will keep happening. We want to stop these things by coercion, by modifying legislation, so that they know that, if they do this repeatedly, obviously we are not talking about abuses from state authorities, they will have to pay at the level of their turnover," explained Virgil Popescu at the end of the meeting at the Victoria Governmental Palace with Prime Minister Florin Citu, Minister of Labor Raluca Turcan, representatives of ANRE, Transelectrica, Electric Energy and Natural Gas Market Operator (OPCOM) and the Competition Council. AGERPRES (RO - author: Nicoleta Gherasi, editor: Oana Tilica; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Simona Iacob)