Kiev court upholds charging Gaztransit divs to Gazprom as penalty

KIEV, Sep 27 (PRIME) -- The Kiev Economic Court has upheld charging Gaztransit U.S. $3.1 million which it would have otherwise paid in dividends to parent company Gazprom as a penalty for Gazprom’s monopolistic position in the country, Justice Minister Pavel Petrenko said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian antimonopoly committee imposed the fine on Gazprom in 2015. In 2016, the fine increased to $6.4 billion for jeopardized payment. Gazprom contested the fine as it does not operate on the market of Ukraine, but all appeals were futile.

“The Kiev Economic Court confirmed the lawfulness of charging Gazprom 79.8 million hryvnas literally several minutes ago. These are dividends to the Russian gas monopolist by Gaztransit which were reclaimed to the Ukrainian budget,” Petrenko said.

He said that the ministry continues to work to charge Gazprom the full amount of the penalty, or $6.4 billion.

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