The Union of Employers of Serbia (UPS) will send a request to the government asking that the increase in the price of electricity should be capped and announced in advance. “An acceptable price increase would be around 10%,” said the association’s director, Srdjan Drobnjaković, today.
This is also the opinion of the College of the Economic and Social Council, based on a survey that was conducted recently and in which most businesses said that the increase of around 10% would be tolerable. According to Drobnjaković, far fewer companies believe that a price increase of around 20% would be acceptable and only a handful of companies said that the increase in the price of electricity would not affect their business.
“The price of electricity has increased dramatically for many companies, up to 150%, depending on the terms of the contract with their electricity provider. Since about 95 per cent of the electricity for domestic consumption comes from domestic sources, we believe that electricity price should not exceed that on global stock exchanges,” Drobnjakovic said.
He added that companies believe that one of the solutions would be to reduce excise duties and subsidies for renewable sources and increase electricity production by using gas that Russia will supply to Serbia at the old price for the next six months.
The price of electricity on the European stock exchanges in mid-October jumped by about 140 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh), from about 180 euros to 320 euros. In Germany, for instance, the price is 150 euros per MWh. In Serbia, companies and electricity providers are starting to conclude electricity supply contracts that stipulate prices that are up to 200% higher than the old ones, despite the state’s recommendation for electricity providers to charge the same electricity price for businesses until the end of this year, which currently stands between 50 and 60 euros per MWh.
(021.rs, 02.12.2021)
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