«Growth of the natural gas rates is due to the growth of the dollar exchange rate only,» Arzymat Aldayarov, Deputy General Director of Gazprom Kyrgyzstan OJSC, said at a press conference at 24.kg news agency today.
According to him, Kyrgyzstan is an importer of natural gas. Its purchase price on the border with Kazakhstan is $ 150 per 1,000 cubic meters. It includes the cost of transportation of the natural gas and the cost of transit through the territory of third countries. The cost of purchase of gas accounts for more than 70 percent, or 12.7 soms, in the structure of the gas rates.
«Other 1.3 soms are standard losses, 3.6 soms — operating costs and salary fund — 0.4 soms instead of 2.6 soms. The rest of the spending on payroll has been subsidized by Gazprom PJSC since 2014. The current rates for the natural gas does not cover all the costs of transportation, distribution and sale in the territory of Kyrgyzstan and is unprofitable,» Arzymat Aldayarov said.
He also stressed that the current tariff is the lowest among the gas importing countries in the CIS and remained so throughout 2020, even despite the fact that the highest growth of the dollar exchange rate — by 21 percent, was registered in Kyrgyzstan.
«To prevent the rates from increasing further, there are two ways — lowering the purchase price or transfer to settlements in rubles. But these issues should be resolved not within Gazprom, but at the level of the governments of the countries. We consider it important to resume negotiations between the governments of our countries on this issue,» Arzymat Aldayarov concluded.
