The Burgas Refinery “LUKoil Neftohim” has transferred BGN 112.728 million to the “Security of the Electricity System” Fund under the Law on Compensation of Transport Consumer Expenses. These are the contributions for the months from December to March inclusive, equal to 70% of the difference between the price of the more expensive “Brent” variety and the cheaper Russian oil with which the refinery worked until recently, writes “Now”.
The fund expects another BGN 1.7 million, plus BGN 490 thousand accrued interest, announced its chairman Dian Chervenkondev. He gave a report to the deputies of the newly formed temporary commission to verify the implementation of the derogation for the import of Russian oil and the implementation of the Law on compensation of the costs of transport users.
The law, also known as Delyan Dobrev’s “One Leva Law”, was adopted back in January 2023 with the idea of taxing LUKoil additionally due to the excess profits from the processing of cheap Russian oil and returning to consumers nearly a leva for every liter purchased gasoline. However, this did not happen. First, the compensation turned out to be far less. Second, the law did not come into force until November 2023 because MPs voted on a condition that Brussels first approve the imposition of the additional contributions.
The temporary parliamentary committee will summon to its next meetings the responsible ministers of the economy and finance in 2023 – official and regular – to ask for explanations as to why the notification from the EC was so delayed in time. The MPs – mainly from GERB and DPS, demand to find out what lost benefits there are for the state from blocking the operation of the law for almost 10 months.
Deputies from the BSP and “Vazrazhdane” noted that this temporary commission has run out of content and it is not dignified that GERB and DPS, after 9 months of joint management, are doing PR on the backs of their until recently partners PP-DB.
The law on compensating the costs of transport users, with the controversial clauses for prior approval from Brussels, was passed with the votes of both GERB and DPS. It was only in November that they demanded that the clauses in question be removed, and so the law came into force 10 months later.
“LUKoil Neftohim” has made full contributions to the energy fund for the months from December to March, determined by order of the Minister of Economy. However, all of them are appealed by the refinery in the administrative court of Burgas, disputing the way in which the Ministry of Economy and Industry calculates the difference between the prices of Brent and Urals, it became clear at today’s meeting of the temporary commission.
For December, the contribution calculated by the Minister of Economy is for almost BGN 70 million, while “LUKoil Neftochem” claims for BGN 43 million. For January, the contribution specified by the state drops sharply to BGN 27.4 million, since from this month the refinery stops importing Russian oil and processes only residual quantities. However, the company believes that it should pay BGN 15.7 million for January. For February, the amount due is already BGN 13 million, but the claims are for BGN 6.8 million. The last installment is for March and it is for BGN 3.4 million, but BGN 1.6 million has been paid.
From the explanations of the head of the SES fund, it became clear that they demanded the full amount of the sums with the initiation of administrative proceedings and issued acts, and interest is due for the remaining sums not paid in due time.
By law, the SES fund must transfer the collected funds to the Ministry of Social Affairs, responsible for the program to compensate the costs of transport for vulnerable groups of the population.
“There is still no decree issued to do this, and that is why the money stays in the fund,” Chervenkondev pointed out.
Initially, the idea was to use LUKoil’s contributions to support the transport costs of vulnerable groups of the population – for example, to pay for the subscription cards for urban and intercity transport of students, the socially disadvantaged, etc. However, in January, the Ministry of Social Affairs announced that it had been decided to pay compensation in one lump sum by June 30 to all families who receive monthly child allowances. It is about 300,000 families. With BGN 113 million collected, this means that each family will receive just over BGN 300 in aid.
