Eesti Gaas Forced to Sell Pipes or Face Penalties
Parliament's Economic Affairs Committee decided against the expropriation of Eesti Gaas's pipeline infrastructure, but is nevertheless forcing the company to sell the grid.
A bill introduced in Parliament prescribes a penalty payment that will be enforced if the company does not meet its responsibility to sell the pipes.
The ceiling of the fine was set at 1.2 million euros per year, but it cannot be larger than 10 percent of the company's annual turnover.
According to the bill, penalty payments would be enforced beginning 2015, which the committee said gives the company plenty of time to dispose of the distribution grid.
An earlier plan would have demanded a penalty payment in addition to initiating a compulsory sale in the event that the pipes aren't sold by 2015.
The government has said that separating Estonia's gas grid from the supplier is the first step to creating a private natural gas market.
Ott Tammik