Head of The Union of Oil Product Importers Vano Mtvralishvili, Georgia’s Business Ombudsmen Irakli Lekvinadze, representatives of oil importing companies and field experts will discuss issues related to enforcement of new quality norms on diesel fuel, this information has been spread by the Business Ombudsmen Office.
As they inform, according to the new norms, from 1 January 2020, the quality norms for diesel fuel imported and sold in Georgia must meet Euro 5 standard requirements. At this point, the quality norms of diesel fuel correspond to Euro 4 standard. In addition, diesel fuel imported from Azerbaijan meets Euro 4 standard requirements, and the state oil company plans to produce Euro 5 diesel fuel from 2021. Correspondingly, in the event that the regulation comes into force from 1 January 2020, diesel fuel import from Azerbaijan will be entirely restricted.
In view of this, the Union of Oil Product Importers demand that a one-year moratorium be announced regarding use of Euro 4 standard diesel fuel on the local market.
“Information presented at the meeting is sufficient to start discussions on the introduction of changes to the period of time determined for the application of new standard requirements with regard to diesel fuel. A number of factors were mentioned in today’s presentation, including the volume of import: 40% of diesel fuel on the market today is imported from Azerbaijan and after enforcement of the regulation from 2020, fuel import from this country will be entirely restricted. Some evaluations are connected to emissions, technical characteristics of the auto park and price disparities. The Union of Oil Importers and Socar Company addressed our Office for support. We are processing the recommendation to demonstrate our support to the private sector since information by businessmen is enough to discuss this case comprehensively, and accordingly we do support the demand by oil importers to announce a one-year moratorium on Euro 4 standard diesel,” Lekvinadze said.
Bela Gelashvili
News Author