At a closed sitting on Friday afternoon, Bulgaria's Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (KEVR) will determine the new electricity prices, which are to enter into force on Saturday.

The chairperson of KEVR Ivan Ivanov said that the new prices will be different from the ones announced in the report of the regulator, which had to enter into force on July 1.

The reason for the change in prices is the set of measures, which the government has implemented in the energy sector in the past month.

The initial version, which did not enter into force, foresaw the prices of electricity for households to rise by approximately 2 %, while the increase for the industry to be between 4 % and 20 %.

Employers' organisations and trade unions expressed their firm opposition towards the planned increase of electricity prices for the industry.

According to them, such a step would lead to the increased prices of all goods, lay-offs and bankruptcies.

Hundreds of people protested against the planned increase of prices throughout the country on Wednesday after KEVR had announced earlier on Tuesday that further postponement of the new prices is impossible.

The increase will largely come from the rise in the so-called “duty to society” tax, which KEVR sees as necessary as for nearly two years the industry has paid a price, which was nearly two and a half times lower than the one paid by households.

According to KEVR, the rise of the “duty to society” tax is inevitable, but it will most likely not introduce the double increase, which had initially been foreseen.