19.06.2015

The chairman of KRIB Kiril Domuschiev in an interview about the Declaration of the employers' organizations on the price of electricity

- Mr. Domuschiev, four nationally represented employers' organizations in Bulgaria, led by KRIB, came out with a special declaration on abuses in the energy sector. Prime Minister Borissov took a stand and announced that he too would protest against the increase in the price of electricity. Your comment?

- There is no way that Prime Minister Borissov should not be on the side of business and consumers, because he comes from business and he has paid salaries and had to pay his electricity bills and knows that this is not easy at all. He knows very well what responsibility an employer has for his employees in companies.

His position is the position of every single normal person in this country. If you pay attention to the declaration that the four employers' organizations came out with today and on which we are unanimous, you will see that in it we emphasize in great detail all the problems that exist in our energy industry and direct the public's attention to the fact that we must first make reforms, liquidate deficits and stop theft and incompetence and then see what shortcomings there are so that one can assess what the increase in electricity should actually be.

The declaration makes it very clear that we, the employers' organizations, do not divide business into small, medium and large, as certain politicians and lobbyists have tried to trick us into in the last week or two.

– Yes, but are the rights of individual electricity consumers adequately protected?

– We are also concerned about the end user. This is clearly evident from our declaration.

A drastic increase in the price of electricity for industry cannot help but affect the household consumer.

In the end, every enterprise will subsequently look for reserves, how to optimize its cost and how to survive. The only way this can happen is with layoffs, the closing of certain activities, and with very severe cuts to the potential for wage growth. There is no other way for this to happen, given the problem that our industry has been struggling with for years - the high price of electricity and the high price of natural gas in Bulgaria, which is higher than the price in any other European country country.

Our industry has made a very large investment in order to be energy efficient. So let some people stop telling us that our businesses need to become more energy efficient! We cannot stop working and not use electricity.

After all, whatever investments have been made, everything is at the limit of our capabilities. In most Bulgarian enterprises, a lot of investments were made so that the costs of electricity and natural gas could be optimized as much as possible. There is nowhere to go from here.

And it's no coincidence that you've seen letters start pouring in to the labor offices and mass redundancies taking place, which is a clear sign that this thing is not going to be passed over and swallowed up by the industry as certain people expected.

With the declaration that we distributed, very precisely and clearly we say where the problems are, and we do not simply say that the price of electricity should not be raised.

We want the relevant analyzes to be done first, the problems to be solved and then to be assessed together with our experts by how much and whether the price of electricity should be raised.

We believe that the reserves are huge even if NEK turns a profit without drastically raising electricity prices.

- Is the industry determined to protest next Friday?

- The industry will protest on June 26 with a one-hour stoppage of production. Let us hope that in the coming days there will be no need to increase these hours during which production must stop.

- You say that some people and lobbyists tried to make you an intrigue with Prime Minister Borisov. Be specific and name names?

- I say that an attempt was made to intrigue with the Prime Minister, and that certain lobbyists and politicians tried to deceive not only the Prime Minister, but also the public, that the industry is to blame for everything and that the industry should swallow this increase in current as something normal .

The people in question didn't come up with specific numbers, and the data they did give was so wrong that I was just ashamed. Turns out they're just either big liars or they skipped math class at school.

- How do you think theft in energy could be stopped?

- There are many ways. Will is needed to make certain amendments in laws and regulations. You see that an amendment was adopted in the Energy Act, which concerned factory heating systems and factory power plants. And in the end, nothing happened because the next step was not taken.

– In whose interest was this thing not done? And why does the industry continue to foot these bills?

- For KEVR, no matter how much they pretend to be an independent body, it is very easy for each of the market players to go and present their accounts, and then say that they should be paid a certain amount. And KEVR starts to calculate and ask where to get this money. And then he answers to himself - well, we will take this money from the business.

This is not logical. I think that KEVR is not doing its job regardless of the fact that it is an independent body. The fact that a structure is an independent body does not mean that it should run away from responsibility and expertise.

- Mr. Domuschiev, who are the gray cardinals and oligarchs in the domestic energy industry?

- Look, it is an open secret that at least 20-30 deputies from the previous and current parliament are owners of a large part of the photovoltaics.

 It is no coincidence that we saw some of these MPs appearing on the media and talking about the people and justice in the "Referendum" program.

These people are known, including by journalists.

None of these people who are behind the factory heats and power plants etc. have any interest in changing the status quo because they are perfectly fine with business being ripped off like this with constant price hikes and high bills so they can to receive their rents from the plants that do not actually create jobs, since they are managed remotely.

Huge amounts of money are paid to these centers, and you can imagine for yourself what kind of money and business is involved.

- How many people is this shady business concentrated in?

– In the hands of 20-30 people. These people are very powerful financially and do not have any significant expenses and scruples.

We all have to pay them and they make huge sums of money. For this reason, I do not believe in the independence of KEVR.

The fact is that the price of the component that concerns the factory plants and the heating systems, which are highly efficient, is also increasing, and it also jumps several times - from 3 to over 9 BGN and the fee for the American plants. The same applies to the increase in the green energy component.

So no one can convince me that in the absence of new green energy permits that this fee should be increased in the absence of new capacity. Where does this money go then?

We do not agree to fill the holes in the NEK. Thefts continue there and in BEH. I can back up my words with concrete data.

I do not see any reforms in this direction in the last 6 months in the energy sector and by its wards NEK and BEH.

- From which parliamentary groups are the powerful MPs with interests in energy that you are talking about?

- From all parliamentary groups.

– Say names?

- You will know them by their appearances in the media.

 Interview of Ivaylo Krachunov, PIK Agency