KIEV, Oct. 2 – The government's decisions to sell gas to chemical and metallurgical companies and religious organizations at reduced prices and cuts in subsidies that compensate for the difference between the price of imported gas and the price at which it is sold to heat supplying companies will cost Naftogaz Ukrayiny UAH1.73 billion September through December 2009.

This opinion was aired by Oleksandr Shlapak, the first deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential secretariat, at a briefing in Kiev on Friday.