Parliament to Discuss MANS Draft-Law

Network for Affirmation of the Non-governmental Sector - MANS

The Parliament of Montenegro decided to include the proposed Draft-Law on Protection of Households in the Energy Sector in its agenda of legislation to be debated. The Draft was prepared by the Network for Affirmation of the NGO Sector (MANS), and was supported by more than 7,000 citizens who signed the petition.

After the scandal with the January electricity bills, extremely high with calculated electricity imports, MANS submitted its own proposal of a Law on Protection of Households in Energy Sector and organized the signing of petition to support the law.

According to MANS, the official price for electricity for the households of about 4 Euro Cents hiked up by 70% in January because of increased imports. Together with the VAT, the price of a kiloWatt of electricity reached the threshold of more than 7 cents. At the same time, the largest consumer of electricity in the Country, the privately owned Aluminium Corporation (KAP), pays electricity at a price unaffected by imports.

�KAP covers 44% of the total consumption of electricity, while the total deficit in the country is 32%. If KAP procured its own electricity, Montenegro could export 12% of its own production. All citizens pay the price of imports, but imports don�t reflect on the price paid by KAP. The brunt of the cost of imports fell exclusively on the citizens, having in mind that KAP�s elctricity price is fixed in the privatization agreement�, said MANS.

MANS�s draft-law provides for the price of electricity charged on the households is calculated exclusively using the costs of energy received by domestic production.