DAVOS, May 27 – The Cabinet of Ministers will create a special state budget fund for receipts from international donors, through which it will be able to keep gas tariffs for the population, compensate for the difference in tariffs for heat utilities and gas distribution network operators, head of the board of Naftogaz Ukrainy Yuriy Vitrenko said.

"The bill, approved by the government, provides that a special state budget fund will be created, which will receive money from international partners. The government, in turn, will use this fund to ensure that tariffs do not increase," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine during the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Vitrenko noted that the state will compensate the difference between economically justified and current tariffs to market participants: heating companies and gas distribution network operators, whose tariff does not cover their costs, as well as Naftogaz for fulfilling the special obligations laid down by the Cabinet of Ministers to sell the resource at preferential prices, and not on commercial terms.

According to him, this will also allow Naftogaz to borrow funds to purchase gas.

Naftogaz will be able to explain to creditors that it receives enough money from the sale of this gas, since the difference in tariffs will be covered from the state budget," the head of the company said.

Vitrenko explained that Naftogaz's own production is not enough to cover all the needs of the population: both direct consumption and through centralized heating on gas, and production and technological costs in gas distribution networks.

In addition, Naftogaz clarified that the draft law on the specifics of regulating relations in the natural gas market and in the field of heat supply during martial law and subsequent restoration, approved on May 10, 2022, provides, among other things, for the introduction of a moratorium to increase prices for natural gas and tariffs for thermal energy and related services.

The company refuted the information disseminated by a number of mass media about the threefold increase in the price of heating. (om/ez)