Naftogaz's claims filed to court seeking to refund losses for gas supplies under PSO make no sense
Claims filed by national joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy, as well as its subsidiary JSC Ukrgazvydobuuvannia, seeking to refund losses for supply of gas under public service obligations (PSO) in court, make no good sense, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said.
"State-owned company [Ukrgazvydobuuvannia] sued the government for returning UAH 56 billion to them - to compensate for the difference between the market price and the lower price we set. Where is the common sense of the management of a state-owned company? We will protect the interests of the state. We will not allow these billions in losses. I will do everything to unite the best lawyers in order to protect the interests of the state," he said in parliament on Friday.
As reported, Naftogaz in October 2018 filed a lawsuit to Kyiv's business court against the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine seeking to refund the loss of UAH 6.6 billion appeared in the fourth quarter of 2015 over the refusal of the government to create a mechanism for compensation for gas supplied under PSO and the sources of this compensation.
In general, Naftogaz's top managers assesses the sum of the required compensation under PSO for the period from October 1, 2015 through June 2018 at over UAH 102.9 billion, taking into account own unaudited calculations. UAH 80.8 billion of the sum is possible earnings of Ukrgazvydobuvannia, UAH 7 billion are linked to the creation of reserves for troubled debts and UAH 5.1 billion are losses.
In addition, in October of this year, the Kyiv's business court also accepted for consideration and decided to open proceedings on the case of recovery UAH 56.797 billion of compensation for the supply of natural gas under PSO from the Cabinet of Ministers in favor of Ukrgazvydobuuvannia.