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Eastern Europe
October 26, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 15
Ukrainian political rivals locked in bitter dispute over gas tariffs hike
bne IntelliNews
Ukraine's opposition leader, former prime minister and the leader of the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party Yulia Tymoshenko has urged the chairman of the nation's parliament, Andriy Parubiy, to convene an extraordinary session with the aim of preventing a 23.5% hike in domestic gas tariffs.
"We demand a resolution on a moratorium on tariff increases, which can ban the government from making further unlawful decisions," Batkivs- hchyna said in a statement published on October 22. "Under the constitution, such an extraordinary meeting of parliament can be convened by the speaker or 150 lawmakers."
The move immediately followed an agreement between Kyiv and its main donor, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a new 14-month stand- by programme of $3.9bn. The increase in gas tariffs was a key element of the new deal. The programme will replace the arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreed March 2015. Ukraine has received $8.4bn from the IMF so far under the multinational lender's EFF.
According to Batkivshchyna's statement, the party counts on the support of all concerned MPs, who believe that the decision of the Ukrain- ian cabinet to increase tariffs should be stopped, and utility tariffs should be brought to a “reason- able” level.
Three days earlier, Tymoshenko urged the nation's MPs of all levels to immediately call
Former prime minister and the leader of the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party Yulia Tymoshenko.
extraordinary sessions across the country with the aim of opposing the introduction of an increase
of 23.5% in natural gas rates for the population.
Tymoshenko said that, considering the produc- tion costs, unearned income, transportation, and taxes, the price of Ukrainian natural gas should not exceed $80-$90 for 1,000 cubic metres (cm). For instance, Kazakhstan produces enough natu- ral gas and sells it to its residents at a rate of $92 per 1,000 (cm), according to Interfax news agency.
Responding to this criticism, President Petro Poroshenko on October 23 urged the population not to trust populists who promise to reduce gas prices. "The promises of populists to cheapen the gas prices two-, three-, four-, six-times can be made only with the return to Russian gas bondage," Poroshenko's media office quoted him as saying during a meeting with the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine.
Tymoshenko and Poroshenko are the main political rivals ahead of the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections in the war-torn country.
"We have just got out of this [gas] slavery, and they are trying to bring us back there," Poroshenko added. "I will not allow to bring the country back to the so-called 'Russian world in any circumstances. My advice is not to listen to sweet voices of pseudo defenders. Why? Because there is a lot of honey and not much truth there, or even no truth at all."
According to the president, the political forces,