Hungary, Serbia oppose fee hike for Russian gas transit via Bulgaria

BUDAPEST, Oct 18 (PRIME) -- Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said in a joint declaration that the Bulgarian authorities' decision to raise transit fees for Russian gas threatens the energy supply, as seen by PRIME from the document published on the Hungarian Foreign Ministry’s website late on Tuesday.

“Bulgaria's decision to impose a transit fee on gas from Russia is a hostile step towards Hungary and Serbia. This new Bulgarian measure threatens the security of energy supply to Hungary and Serbia. The E.U. does not apply sanctions against natural gas supplies from Russia, so the Bulgarian Prime Minister's argument in this regard is completely wrong,” the statement read.

On October 13, Bulgaria set an excise tax of 20 Bulgarian leva, or 10 euros, for each megawatt-hour of Russian gas transit. The new transit fee is about one-fifth of the current base gas price, which is 50 euros per megawatt-hour. Normally, the transit fee does not exceed 10% of the actual cost of gas.

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