The National Commission on the Regulation of Energy and Utility Services (NCREUS) will consider at an open session on April 10 the suspension of its decision to impose a license fee for utility gas. In a 4 April statement, the regulator pledged to review the introduction a monthly fee "with the aim of protecting the population from a rise in utility bills."
To this end, the NCREUS will hold consultations with the Cabinet to convince the government to introduce subsidies for the gas fee.
It is planned to lower the heating tariffs for households who use gas only for cooking so that the gas fee would not increase the total utility bill.
The price of utility gas was planned to be divided into two components: the price of gas as a commodity (4,942 hryvnya/thousand cubic meters plus the marginal trade margin of the gas distributing company of 3.2%) and a subscription fee for the connection to gas grid.
The regulator sets the fee on the basis of the connected capacity of each consumer (eg a gas meter). The tariff covers the costs of Ukrtransgaz for transportation of gas via main gas mains to gas distribution systems (about 23% in the tariff structure). The regulator has said the subscription fee will be about 92 hryvnia per month for the most popular types of gas meters.
Currently, the final price for utility gas is set at 6,879 hryvnia/thousand cubic meters, including all transport costs, taxes and retail margins.