Skopje, 24 February 2023 (MIA) – I believe that the measure for procurement of electricity at a subsidized price should not apply to the companies that refuse to follow the gentleman’s agreement between the Government and the Chambers of Commerce to reduce the prices of their products, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski said on Friday.

“If they do not have objective reasons to not reduce prices despite the subsidized price of electricity, then it follows that they won’t get electricity at a subsidized price, because the electricity is subsidized by the citizens. These are funds meant to reduce the prices of products,” PM Kovachevski told reporters.

He reiterated that the Government has determined a subsidized price of electricity for the companies even when it cost EUR 300-350 per MW/h, and that it was offered to them at EUR 80 per MW/h.

Kovachevski thanked employees at electricity companies for the increased production of electricity by almost 25% this year in comparison to last year, which was made possible thanks to the fact that all power production capacities are working for the first time in 70 years.

“When everyone was an expert at everything, including my political opponents, and predicting that North Macedonia would be left without power and that we’d have restrictions in January, we remained the only country in the region that not only had no restrictions, but we had an excess of electricity to sell, and we lowered the price of electricity instead of increasing it,” Kovachevski said.