(Podgorica, 6 April 2012) – MANS calls on the Administrative Court to immediately decide on our complaint against the Regulatory Agency for Energy (RAE) concerning the electricity price hikes, since we’re dealing with a subject that is of immediate public interest whose outcome will significantly impact the budgets of all Montenegrin citizens.
On the basis of that decision, electricity prices for households have increased 7% since the beginning of the year and citizens are already paying the difference. Nevertheless the Administrative Court has yet to make a ruling, even though the complaint was launched in January.
The complaint that was filed requested the annulment of decisions made by the RAE since it used questionable means to establish the expenses of the Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG) since that company initiated an extraordinary request for an increase in the electricity price in late 2011.
At the time, the EPCG claimed that due to the unfavorable hydrological situation it was forced to import expensive electricity. However, in the meantime in turned out that the Regulator had increased our bills for items related to technical losses on the distribution network instead of for more expensive energy imports.
This has further confirmed MANS’ claims that there was no valid reason for the latest prince increase and that the RAE, which by law is required to act independently, is constantly making decisions injurious to citizens and in the interest of the energy companies.
To what extent the RAE is working in the interests of the energy lobby can be demonstrated by the fact that with the newest methodology it adopted for the calculation of the electricity price it has violated the laws and Constitution of Montenegro. These methodologies were adopted late last year and there implementation can lead to yet another price increase in August.
For these reasons, MANS today submitted an initiative to the Constitutional Court that requests a reversal of the current methodology, since they are contrary to the Law on Energy and the constitutional provision that the state should protect the consumer.
That is, the RAE “self-initiated” a new item on our bills that is related to the invested capital of energy companies, even though citizens have been paying the returns on invested capital through their bills already.
This means that factually consumers would be additionally subsidizing future investment projects of energy companies, like the newly planned transmission lines stretching from the Montenegrin coast to Plevlja in the north (which is being developed in the context of the planned undersea energy cable linking Montenegro and Italy).
The Law on Energy clearly stipulates that in determining the revenue of companies that their “operating expenses, depreciation and return on assets” be calculated, and that in the concrete case, the RAE has imposed greater obligations on consumers from those foreseen by the law.
MANS expects the Constitutional Court to immediately consider this initiative, especially since the EPCG and Prenos (the distribution company) have already launched requests for the approval of new electricity prices that the RAE would calculate on the basis of its illegal methodologies.
Similarly, the work of the regulators should have been inspected, since it is time to end the permanent violation of the law and the adoption of decisions that are damaging to Montenegro’s citizens (who can no longer subsidize the price of kickbacks through their bills).
