EPS: Price of electricity to stay the same at least until the end of 2016

(Photo: Goran Parezanović)

The reason is, as he said, that EPS made a RSD 2.5 billion profit last year instead of the planned losses of 21.5 million, but also that electricity prices in the market have never been lower. He nonetheless added that the price of electricity in Serbia is the lowest one in Europe.

However, as stated by the head of the IMF Mission James Roef a few days ago, people in Serbia should get used to the adjustment of regulated prices of electricity from year to year.

When asked whether the price of electricity will increase in 2016, he said that, instead of the IMF, it was the Government of Serbia and the World Bank that would make the decision.

The Minister of Energy Aleksandar Antic didn't want to discuss the electricity price, but the Government has said on several occasions that the price is not fully economic and that the Government will gradually take measures towards rectifying that.

On the other hand, the World Bank says that EPS has a lot of financial problems and that the increase in revenue and the decrease in expenses are necessary.

- We are looking to increase the revenue and decrease the expenses in any way possible in order to reduce the EPS debts, which are huge at the moment. For increased revenue, the option is to increase the price of electricity and the collection of bills. Another option is to decrease the expenses, and the best option is to do both – estimates the World Bank for Blic, and their statement clearly shows that they think that there should definitely be an increase in the price of electricity, as it is the quickest, simplest solution for improving the state of EPS.

The latest increase in the price of electricity in Serbia happened in August 2015, when it went up by 12%.