The increase in the prices of the mobile operators comes against the background of very serious assistance to them from the state, the ombudsman Prof. Diana Kovacheva stated in "The day begins with Georgi Lyubenov"

Diana Kovacheva was born in Sofia in 1975. She graduated in law at Sofia University "St. Kliment.

She called on the Commission for the Protection of Competition to refer and investigate concerted practices.

"All three mobile operators give a request that they will increase the prices at the same time and by almost the same percentage. The fact that they index their services almost the same means that the KPC should self-report and check for concerted practices. This is one side of things.

What is worrying is that the indexation that is happening actually comes against the background of a very serious support from the state to mobile operators," the ombudsman said.

She explained that there is a tariff that is about to be adopted, with which mobile operators' fees to the state are reduced by 40% - for innovations, investments, modern networks, etc.

"It is not fair to raise the prices. Moreover, both last year and this year, mobile operators are supported for electricity," emphasized Diana Kovacheva

Diana Kovacheva was born in Sofia in 1975. She graduated in law from the Sofia University "St. Kliment" and was categorical that for her the inaction of the control and regulatory bodies was outrageous.

According to her, in practice it turns out that mobile operators receive state aid, and on the other hand increase fees and profits - i.e.

the profit shear widens.

The ombudsman asked mobile operators to review their price increases

"They are making a profit, they do not sell their products below their cost price. The question is why the prices are raised, and this is absolutely unfair," Kovacheva said.

The ombudsman has also received many reports of high heating bills - about 30% higher than last year.

"The problem is that this increase, which people feel in their pockets, is related to the fact that already on July 1 last year, the price of heat energy was increased by 40% on average for the country, and so this reduction of VAT to 9% actually people they can't feel it because the increase is drastic," she explained.

According to her, helping people is hampered by the lack of a definition of what energy poverty is.

Kovacheva reminded that there is a regulation from December 1, 2022 to support end users who are energy users, i.e. direct financial support, and it must be implemented by the government.

"This regulation makes it possible for each country to decide on what mechanism to distribute this money to reach the end users, but this mechanism has not yet been worked out," she said.

Diana Kovacheva

mobile operators