Despite Presidential Instruction, Gazprom Seeks to Raise Prices

Gazprom is continuing to seek an increase in domestic gas prices, despite an instruction from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last month to keep prices stable.

In March, Gazprom sought to raise its prices for gas supply to Russian consumers but was instead instructed to improve efficiency to keep down costs by then Prime Minister Putin (now the president-elect of Russia).

"Preparation of materials to justify an additional rise is under way," Reuters reports head of Gazprom's transportation and gas storage department, Alexey Melnikov as saying today.

While no concrete figures have yet been outlined, the executive said the company was undertaking the compilation of materials to support the fact that it had to raise the cost of gas supply to Russian customers.

"The company finds it necessary to make an additional increase [in prices]," Russian newspaper Ria Novosti reports him as saying.

The company said last month that it was seeking an increase of 26.3 per cent for domestic supply to be implemented by winter of this year.

The company had also planned to increase prices by 15 per cent in June of this year. Additional price increases seemed likely then as new massive tax tariffs on the company, necessitated by high government spending in the run-up to the presidential elections, would have proven to have almost or entirely negated any profit from the increase in prices.