While the oil price on the world market renews its minimum, the price of gasoline at the Ukrainian gas stations is still quite high.
“In fact, the fall of the price of gasoline occurs. But not at the level all of us would like to see”, the president of the association “Association of operators of oil market of Ukraine” Leonid Kosyanchuk.
According to him, the oil price fell three times for a half of year, but over the same period, hryvnia fell by more than 3.5 times. And since 80% of gasoline and diesel fuel is imported today, we do not observe so measurable drop of its prices.
“In addition, the tax on petroleum products (47%) is calculated in euros but paid in local currency. Now the oil market is characterised by the lowest possible prices, as in winter there is always low demand for fuel,” he said.
However, from January 20th the Ukrainian gas stations will begin to change price tags. This is due to the excise tax on petroleum products by 13% from January 1, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada. The rise of prices will start after new oil parties be cleared at the new excise rates.
The expert declines to forecast the fuel price increase: the weather forecast can be regarded as an exact science, compared with forecasts of the oil market he said. Too many factors, including the unavoidable ones, influence on the process.
“On January 4th the situation has seriously aggravated by the fact that the oil, for some reason, suddenly dropped out of the list of so-called critical imports. That is, the NBU does not consider them as important point for the economy. And according to its Resolution N 124 of February 23rd, 2015, now the NBU doesn’t sell the currency the major importer of petroleum products in Ukraine, and moved to the mode of one-shot deal with $500k prepayment. The exceed of this amount is paid by the letter of credit (contingent financial obligation assumed by the Bank). But the major oil suppliers don’t consider such a payment method. Therefore, it is a very big problem for us,” Leonid Kosyanchuk stated.
