POSITION PAPER “The return to regulated gas prices for households is a step backwards in the market reform”
The Ukrainian society has traditionally been sensitive to the issue of energy pricing. On the one hand, there are evident reasons: the problem of energy poverty is Ukraine is quite high on the agenda. According to a survey regularly held by the State Statistics Service, as of 2019, 21.8% households were unable to maintain proper temperature in their housing. In the first half of 2020, 17.2% of the total household expenses were spend on housing maintenance, water, electricity, gas and other utility bills – the second-largest item after food and non-alcoholic beverages (46.2%)
- Why did “tariff protests” happen?
- How did the government respond?
- Why price regulation may hamper the market?
- What’s next?
While fixing the gas price for households until March 31, 2021, the government should not ignore a number of problems in the market to be solved in the coming months anyway. Otherwise, similar crisis situations may occur again.
Given that, DiXi Group experts recommend…
