Belneftekhim wants to let petrol prices float

A range of chemical enterprises think more about survival rather than development due to acting energy rates.

Ihar Zhylin, the head of Belneftekhim company, says price regulation should be cancelled and companies should be given the right to sell products on any markets basing on sales efficiency to allow the petrochemical  industry to survive, Yezhednevnik reports.

The statement was made during a meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers last week. However, it went unnoticed by the media among other statements and remarks. A position of Belneftekhim company, which recently met active lobbying in the Council of Ministers, can have a serious impact on the Belarusian business and every Belarusian.

Ihar Zhylin says a question of  competitive energy rates in the Common Economic Space should be solved to boost investment activities and speed up innovation development of the energy intensive petrochemical sector.

Belneftekhim head says: “A range of chemical enterprises, first of all fiber ones, think more about survival rather than development amid the acting energy rates in Belarus.”

Besides, Ihar Zhyloin thinks “price regulation should be cancelled for the Belarusian petrochemical industry and companies should be given the right to sell products on any markets basing on sales efficiency.“

“In conditions of disparity of domestic and foreign prices the plans to achieve the average European work performance level can remains just plans,” the company head noted.

We remind the government strictly controls oil products domestic prices, in the first place fuel prices. Belneftekhim company already made an attempt to let prices float freely that caused public protests and as a result Lukashenka's discontent. He said he had no information about the outrageous situation with fuel prices and ordered to return them to the previous level.

This time, Beleftekhim seems to be preparing the ground for a new attempt of deregulation of domestic prices which hinder the normal development of oil refineries. There has been no information about reactions of the head of the government and the president, but taking into account they cannot help the petrochemical industry with more acceptable energy prices, they may agree on a new increase in prices of the Belarusian oil industry products.