Gazprom wants gas rise despite Putin's opposition

Gazprom is sticking to its view that an additional rise in domestic gas prices this year is "reasonable", despite a rebuke from President-elect Vladimir Putin, a company official told reporters on Friday, Reuters informs.

"Preparation of materials to justify an additional rise is under way," Alexey Melnikov, head of Gazprom's transportation and gas storage department said.

In March, Putin told Gazprom to work more efficiently and rejected the gas exporting monopoly's proposal for a further rise in domestic gas tariffs.

Russian authorities had refrained from politically sensitive increases in transportation and utility bills before the March 4 elections won by Putin, but earlier this week the central bank warned it would be difficult to hit its 5-6 percent inflation target for this year.

Last month, Finance Ministry officials said Gazprom must hand over most of its marginal tariff increases in the form of a higher mineral extraction tax.

The company responded by saying it needed a 26.3 percent hike in the autumn, in addition to a 15 percent rise granted last year.