Turkey lowers gas prices for places of worship and industrial consumption

Duvar English

Turkey lowered gas prices by 42.73 percent for places of worship, including cemevis, which will be effective from Jan. 1, 2023. The reduction will also include industrial consumption. 

The move was announced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Dec. 31 on Twitter.

Erdoğan said gas prices will be lowered by 42.73 percent for “places of worship and cemevis (an Alevi house of worship).”

Erdoğan also said gas prices will be lowered between 13.10-25.11 percent for industrial consumption, whereas gas prices, used for electricity production, will be lowered by 12.73 percent. The electricity prices will be lowered by 16 percent for industrial consumption as well.

The move came after Russia postponed state-owned gas importer and distributor BOTAŞ’s (Turkey’s Petroleum Pipeline Corporation) 20 billion dollar worth of payment, according to reporting by Habertürk.

Such a move was regarded as the government's aim to prevent the weakening of the Turkish lira against the dollar before the upcoming elections that were scheduled to be held in June 2023.

Turkey meets 40-45 percent of its natural gas needs from Russia. The rest is imported from countries such as Iran, Libya and the U.S.

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