BELGRADE (Serbia), November 24 (SeeNews) – Serbia's energy minister Aleksandar Antic has said the government will not allow the towns of Kraljevo and Valjevo to sign an electricity supply deal with Croatia's HEP until they repay their debt owed to state-owned Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS).
Kraljevo and Valjevo intend to switch to Hrvatska elektroprivreda (HEP) for electricity supplies for their public lighting systems but will be unable to do so until they repay their entire debt owed to EPS, Antic said in a video file posted on the website of public broadcaster RTS on Thursday.
"Every company and institution has the obligation to announce a tender; in some cases, they can find a better offer, but they cannot change the supplier until they repay their debt," Antic noted.
Earlier this week, EPS said the debt of Kraljevo and Valjevo local governments for the supply of electricity amounts to 45 million dinars ($447,555/377,040 euro) and 40 million dinars, respectively.
HEP said earlier in November that its subsidiary HEP Energija supplies electricity to the Serbian factory of Slovenian car parts manufacturer Cimos and plans to start power supplies to the local governments of Kraljevo and Valjevo.
(1 euro = 119.351 dinars)
Hrvatska Elektroprivreda d.d. is among the biggest companies in SEE. You can download our SEE Top 100 ranking
here or subscribe to our free Top 100 newsletter
here