The natural gas price capping mechanism should cease on April 1, 2026, given that it brings serious distortions to the market, said on Wednesday the president of the AGM of the Romanian Commodity Exchange, Septimiu Stoica.
The gas compensation-cap scheme is valid until March 31, 2026.
"On April 1, 2026, it is time for the natural gas market to come out of this tunnel of statist measures, caps, taxes, compensations, fees and so on - and our free market to be free again and not pseudo-free. The measure was taken to protect consumers. The intention was probably good, but the way it was done and the period in which it was prolonged led to serious price distortions, so that we have surprisingly ended up, instead of protecting consumers in Romania, recording the highest prices for electricity and natural gas on the market, because these things were not done with sense and economic science. We hope that April 1 will not be a date when this mechanism is restarted in the same way as it existed or in a disguised form, because "the perverse effects are great", mentioned Septimiu Stoica, at the "Natural Gas Forum - Industry - strategic pillar for Romania's GDP; The role of natural gas in ensuring the competitiveness of the economy", organized by the Financial Intelligence publication.
In his opinion, all these things have repercussions in terms of price formation mechanisms.
"The operating conditions have become difficult or impossible to bear for some economic agents, for some suppliers, in such a way that they have either ceased their activity or have substantially reduced it. Where there is no competition, it is obvious that prices are also pressured by those who are among the few players left. Our message is that at the twelfth hour we should enter an area of normal functioning of these markets and be a market economy in the true sense of the market economy and not just display, demonstrate with a sign that says this", added Septimiu Stoica.
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