The Bulgarian authorities announced to take steps to remove licenses for electricity sales to Czech energy distributors CEZ and Energo -Pro and Austrian EVN . This was announced last week, the local energy regulator confirmed.The process of withdrawal of the license is a response to the fact that the companies did not pay till alleged debt to the Bulgarian state power company NEK . All three firms argues that owes nothing .
ČEZ spokeswoman Barbora Palpanova said that CEZ has not yet received an official statement from the regulator, and reiterated that ČEZ always acted in full compliance with the Bulgarian legislation and the announcement for withdrawal of the license does not arguments or legal reasons.
” State Commission for Energy and Water regulation initiated proceedings to withdraw the licenses for the activities of ‘ public electricity distribution ‘ , issued to EVN Bulgaria Electricity , CEZ Electro Bulgaria and Energo – Pro, ” quoted announcement of Regulatory Authority DKEVR. All three companies received seven days to remove the offense and 14 days for written comments .
Bulgarian Energy Minister Dragomir Stojnev stated last week that the three foreign companies are threatened that if not paid within midnight Tuesday’s state enterprise debt NEK 318 million leva ( CZK 4.4 billion ) , energy regulator initiates proceedings for withdrawal of the license.
The state company NEK is reportedly heavily indebted . In the past year had debts of more than two billion leva ( about 28 billion CZK ) . In the Bulgarian media have recently been reports that the company is facing bankruptcy .
Withdrawal of the license would be another tough blow for foreign investors in the Bulgarian energy sector , which has already hit the local Socialist government’s decision to reduce household electricity bills .
Energy distributor in Bulgaria called for an increase in prices because their incomes do not match current costs. The head of the Energy Authority DKEVR Bojan Boev noted that if energy distributors prove that they have increased spending , could go up with electricity prices .
CEZ Bulgaria serves about two million customers from households and businesses in the west. Půlpánová also pointed out that the entire current situation regarding the license does not apply to the distribution company CEZ , but the company’s business , which is much smaller.
The majority shareholder is the Czech company CEZ State through the Ministry of Finance holds about 70 percent of the shares . Net profit of the company last year fell by 12.3 percent to 35.2 billion.
Source; Serbia Energy/Bulgarian medias/CZ medias
