As of August 1, electricity prices for businesses went up by 10 percent on average. For large electricity consumers (high voltage electricity), some 11,700 companies, the price will go up by 11.1 to 11.8 percent. The price for a select pool of low-voltage electricity consumers (25 percent of companies, or 66,000) will increase by 5 percent.
The price for Slovak Railways (ŽSR) will increase by 10 percent also because the last price hike from August 1996 did not affect it. According to the energy lobby, represented in cabinet by Economic Minister Karol Česnek, a former director of Slovenské Elektrárne (Slovak Electric Power Plants), the increase helps to make prices more realistic because electricity prices lag behind both production and distribution costs.
