Fiscal Council: Loss of EPS and Srbijagas in Heating Season 2021/22 One Billion Euros

The total losses of Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) and Srbijagas during the heating season 2021/22 amounted to around EUR 1 billion, says the Fiscal Council in the analysis titled “Structural Problems of Serbian Energy in the Light of a Global Crisis: Causes, Costs and Potential Solutions”, published yesterday.

– Of the losses incurred so far, close to a half, around EUR 500 million, has already been financed by the state budget through grants to Srbijagas – the analysis says.

The remaining 500 million has been paid by EPS for now, mostly by taking out liquidity loans.

The question, however, remains whether this debt of EPS will eventually be put on taxpayers, because the current operations of EPS are not sustainable.

There could be new big losses of EPS and Srbijagas in the next winter as well, unless there’s a quick and strong change in the operations of those companies.

In that case, these losses would be only slightly lower than a billion euros and would not be able to continue forever, because, at some point, they would become an unsustainable burden, not just for the companies itself, but for public finances on the whole.

What’s currently an additional danger for Serbia is that a stable supply of electricity and gas in the next heating season will again depend on the available infrastructure and energy sources from abroad, which are not guaranteed.

– All this could have been avoided through better management of the public enterprises in the past years. The way EPS (and EDS) have been run so far can no longer be tolerated – said the Fiscal Council.

Fiskalni savet Republike Srbije

JP Srbijagas Novi Sad

Elektroprivreda Srbije ad Beograd

EDS d.o.o. Beograd

Fiscal Council

EPS

EDS

Srbijagas

losses

heating

electricity

gas

liquidity loans

grants