NEC warns Industry: It will start charging more for gas

The National Energy Commission has poured salt in the wounds of transportation and gas distribution companies. Via a report about reforming the industry, which was sent to the Minster of Industry, the NEC warned that these companies have provided data that show their revenues (the money earned from gas bills) "cannot guarantee the levels of investment we are undertaking" or that they aren't updated from ten years ago, and in consequence, the cost of amortizing existing investments.

The criticism arrives at a time when consumers are being asked to make an effort, through paying tariff subsidies, to do away with the gas deficit that is currently near 300 million euros or with new burdens such as the blow from ACS in the Castor storage issue. Still, according to the report, these companies have received extra revenues through an obsolete regulation that the previous administration let slip, leading to the current imbalance to the tax budget.

To make matters worse, the NEC is criticizing excess compensation that regulated businesses are taking in, from transport to gas storage. Specifically, it points to the values that companies claimed when asking for financing tax deductions "are different than the real financing costs that companies faced."

The differences were as much as six percentage points above ten-year Treasuries with rates between 4.5 and 5.5%. And all that without there being any entrepreneurial risk, considering that it deals with regulated debt.