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Naftogaz negotiating with Ukraine’s government possible reduction of gas price

Gas price, according to a company executive, can go down in case gas is becoming cheaper on European markets or when Ukraine stabilized the dollar exchange rate

© Zurab Javakhadze/TASS, archive

MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. Ukraine’s energy company Naftogaz is negotiating with the Ukrainian government possible reduction of gas prices for the population, a company executive said on Thursday.

Yuri Vitrenko, Naftogaz business development director, told the Gromadske.TV channel gas tariffs for the population are to be revised under a memorandum with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The company’s specialists, in his words, have already embarked on talks on that matter with the Ukrainian cabinet.

"We can slightly reduce the gas price for the population even from April 1, but the problem is that due to the rise in the dollar the parity fixed in the IMF memorandum makes it impossible to reduce the price," he said.

Gas price, according to Vitrenko, can go down in case gas is becoming cheaper on European markets or when Ukraine stabilized the dollar exchange rate.

Dmitry Vovk, the chief of Ukraine’s national commission on state regulation of the energy sector and utilities services, said earlier the social tariff on gas for the population will go up by more than 50%, from 3.6 to 5.5 hryvnias per one cubic meters, from April 1.

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