OREANDA-NEWS. August 02, 2012. These are the balance of payments data for January-Transnistria in March 2012, released by the Transnistrian Republican Bank.

According to this source, the debt of Transnistria for the gas consumed in the I quarter of 2010 was USD 140.9 million, in I quarter 2011 - USD 179 million, and in I quarter 2012 - USD 252.2 million as the agency InfoMarket reported before.

In general, only in last five years, Transnistria gas debt has increased by more than USD 2.2 billion, in particular, according to the TRB, the debt of Transnistria for the consumed natural gas in 2007 increased by USD 201.6 million, in 2008 - USD 296.8 million, in 2009 - USD 435.8 million, in 2010 - USD 523.1 million, in 2011 - to USD 702.3 million.

Previously deputy prime minister, Minister of Economy of Moldova Valeriu Lazar said that the total debt of Transnistria for Russian gas in the light of fines and penalties for late payments exceeded USD 3.5 billion, which, he says, is a time bomb for the energy system of Moldova, as long as this debt is hanging on the operator - the company "Moldovagaz", which supplies to Moldova and the Transnistrian region of gas from "Gazprom".

The Moldovan authorities have advocated separation of the debt of left and right banks of the Dniester. It should be noted that the huge debt of Transnistria is due to the fact that gas in the region is sold at prices that are much lower than the purchase price. In addition, local authorities use funds received from the public for gas for other purposes, particularly to cover the budget deficit and social programs, resulting in accumulated large debts for Russian gas. In addition, Transnistria in 2009 suspended all payments for Russian gas.