In addition to the increase in food prices, there will also be a jump in the price of electricity in the coming period. Elektroprivreda Srbije announces a price increase of six and a half percent. The relevant minister, Zorana Mihajlović, says that something like this is necessary, because the energy system is vulnerable and the bills of the average household will be increased between 280 and 340 dinars. Economic experts say that when everything is added up in the account – citizens can expect a higher price increase compared to the one announced.
The price of meat has gone up, but so have almost all other foodstuffs. That list includes fuel and cosmetics. A new increase in the price of bread is also announced. And the circle does not end there, because Elektroprivreda Srbije is demanding an increase in the price of electricity from September 1.
“The request of Elektroprivreda Srbije to the Energy Regulatory Agency is a 6.5 percent increase, when all that is calculated, I expect it to be announced sometime by the end of the month, when you look at the average Serbian household’s bill for average consumption – now also the bill that will be from the moment when the price of electricity increases, the difference will be somewhere between 280 and 340 dinars”, said Zorana Mihajlović, Minister of Mining and Energy.
Goran Radosavljević, professor of economics at the FEFA faculty, also says that citizens will pay an additional 81 dinars for excise taxes and VAT, as well as 185 dinars for renewable energy sources, for the consumption of 500 kilowatts. Which means, as he explains, that the price of electricity increases by more than 10 percent on average.
“The loss that occurred and will occur in EPS, which is measured at almost one and a half billion euros, will be filled by the citizens, that loss was caused by bad management and the collapse of EPS at the end of last year, they will partly fill that loss directly through a 6.5 percent increase in the price of electricity, and will partly pay through taxes, that is, the budget will fill that hole, and then the citizens will somehow have to fill the budget, whether directly through taxes or through the repayment of the public debt, we will see in the next period”, says Radosavljević.
When it comes to the future of the energy system, unions say they are not optimistic. Their representatives say that the production of electricity is seriously threatened and that coal stocks in landfills are minimal. They also state that the announced electricity price increase will not significantly contribute to the financial injection that EPS needs to receive in order to be stable for the winter season.
“Production is in a critical state due to insufficiently prepared overburden in the previous 4-5 years, due to the catastrophic hydrological situation and it is very uncertain what the supply will be in the winter, in Serbia, not enough electricity is produced for the necessary consumption due to the lack of quality coal on the one hand that is from the thermal sector and due to the historical minimum in the inflows of the rivers on which we have built hydro capacities,” says Dragoslav Ljubičić from the mining and energy trade union “Nezavisnost”.
In order to stabilize EPS, the Fiscal Council says that it is necessary for electricity to rise between 15 and 20 percent. The Ministry of Energy tells N1 that due to problems in the EPS, Serbia will certainly import electricity this winter and claims that despite this there will be no restrictions, N1 writes.
