Duma official comments on energy sector restructuring

Today Vladimir Pekhtin, cochairman of the three-party commission onelaborating on a single position on the government's bill aimed atrestructuring the energy sector, told journalists that the technical workof the commission had been finished. He said that in the near future thebill would be submitted to the State Duma for consideration. At the sametime the leader of the Yedinstvo (Unity) faction pointed out that the nextmeeting of the commission would be held on August 29, not the 26th as itwas planned earlier, due to the necessity to agree the prepared variants ofthe bill with the Russian government.The deputy also declared that the commission "managed to find a compromisesuitable to every party, including on the most difficult questions". Amongthem are questions on vertically integrated companies, on regions'authority, on tariff regulations, on the state's participation andresponsibility for energy supplies. While working on the government'sdocument on restructuring the energy sector, the commission took intoconsideration such basic principles as "protection of consumers' rights,first of all of Russia's population", he noted. According to Pekhtin, theconcept of the energy sector's restructuring, which has been improved bythe commission, "aims at preventing unjustified and uncontrolled growth intariffs and it should provide constant supplies to consumers and abolishthe practice of cutting off energy supplies"..