Tiraspol, 21 March. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. A slight rise in prices for fuel and lubricants, including for petrol, was caused by changes if the rouble's official value, fixed by the Pridnestrovian Republican Bank (PRB), said the head of the Price and Antimonopoly Committee, Vitaly Ulitka.
«This rise is the result of a change in the rouble's official value — from 11.10 roubles to 11.30 roubles to $1, based on which our retail chains have recalculated purchase prices," he noted.
According to Vitaly Ulitka, this explains a 10-kopeck rise in price of petrol 95. The committee's chairman said that Pridnestrovie imports almost all its fuel and lubricants wherefore Pridnestrovian fuel retail chains have to adjust the ultimate price to a currency exchange value, otherwise their profits will drop.
«We import almost all our fuel and lubricants, and therefore, we depend on selling prices in the domestic market [of neighbouring countries]," noted the official.
At the same time, according to Vitaly Ulitka, if the Supreme Council makes decision to change the parameters of the currency corridor (a span within which the PRB may fix the rouble's official value) towards the US dollar's value appreciation, fuel prices will rise, which in turn may trigger a rise in other prices.
The influence of fuel prices on inflation processes is very noticible in our country. Fuel prices hike further affects the inflation process because fuel is used to transport passengers. This is a controllable tariff in the agricultural sector as well," said Vitaly Ulitka.
The official explained that the committee has rather limited powers to control the fuel market. Thus, the ultimate petrol price includes a foreign supplier's purchase price, which is directly pegged to the exchange rate and which has been recalculated by retailers due to the movement in the currency rate, transport and storage costs, personnel wages and a markup. The government can only ensure that a fuel importer do not include unreasonable costs to the ultimate price of petrol and other fuels, although the committee is not entitled to control the amount of a markup.
«At present, besides the antimonopoly law, the government does not control prices in this market. There is a free market here, and we only see to it that a dominating economic entity do not abuse its position in the market," said the committee's chairman.
Vitaly Ulitka added that a draft law providing for the extension of powers in this sphere had been submitted earlier to the Supreme Council, but failed to win the required number of votes. There is currently a similar bill before the parliament, based on the Russian antitrust legislation.
«We have been proposing a law on competition similar to that in Russia since 2014, as well as a number of other legal acts providing for the introduction of antimonopoly regulations by direct analogy with Russia. So, we'll have a set of instruments similar to those already tested in Russia for decades," said Vitaly Ulitka.
If the parliament approves these innovations, the antimonopoly committee will be able to contain more efficiently an unjustified rise in fuel prices.
