15 June 2004 07:41
Telecom Operators Threaten Price Rises
Telecom operators have criticised some elements of the new Telecommunication Bill and have threatened to introduce
6-7 percent price hikes if the faults are not removed from the draft. The most controversial ones concern
"administrative payments" imposed by the government on operators. Under these regulations, operators will have
to set aside 3 percent of their income to financing loss making universal service obligations (mainly in the country
side) and dedicate a further 0.5 percent to fund the activities of the Office of Telecommunication and Postal Regulation
(URTiP). According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, both payments will amount to ZL1.14bn in 2005 - almost half the
amount that the operators' experts have calculated. The latter claim that the Ministry's calculations are
inaccurate and that the deficit on fixed telephone lines is not ZL800m as the Ministry says, but ZL490m. - EUR1.5bn to
be Invested to Upgrade Poland's Gas Market
State owned gas market operator PGNiG will spend EUR1.5bn on increasing domestic gas production, new storage
facilities and diversifying gas providers. PGNiG will invest ZL240m in 2004 and ZL340 each subsequent year to boost
domestic gas production from the present 4bn cubic meters annually to 6bn. Poland's reserves of natural gas are
estimated at between 105bn to 110bn cubic meters. By setting up an underground gas storage facility, PGNiG hopes to
cooperate with the Russian gas specialist Gazprom, but cooperation with other companies is not excluded. According to
Marek Kossowski, PGNiG president, the company will get the bulk of the financing from its own sources, but will also
resort to credit lines from commercial banks after it has started the privatisation process and become a credible
debtor. PGNiG also plans to diversify gas deliveries to Poland, to create alternative sources to Gazprom, which provides
6.5bn cubic meters to Poland a year.
[Polish News Bulletin] |
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