Elenko Bozhkov: 10% Power Price Hike is Unjustified

A leading Bulgarian energy expert has disputed the need to raise power prices by as much as 10%, claiming that rate of increase only served the interests of power distributors. 

Bulgaria’s energy regulator DKEVR on Friday proposed to raise power prices for households by 9.79% on average as of October 1 to help cut the financial deficit in the energy sector.

“Only a rise of up to 7.5% would have been justified, the remaining increase of 2.5% has been designed to justify fictitious expenses by the power distributing companies,” Bozhkov opined.

“I guess the rate of increase could have been contained within 5.5%-6.0%”, said Bozhkov, a former DKEVR member, who was dismissed earlier this month by the caretaker government over what the cabinet described as “conflict of interest”.