Natural  gas  tariff  increases as proposed by JSC "Latvijas Gāze" and

approved  by  Public  Services Regulator on April 9 2003  will allow to

cover:

- the increase of natural gas procurement prices;

-  the  costs  due  to  gas  distribution  system safety improvement in

compliance with the EU directives;

- the costs to assure continuity of gas supplies;

- increase of costs associated with assuring environmental standards in

compliance with the EU directives;

- increase of costs due to implementation of gasification programmes at

selected new regions.