The Tunisian Electricity and Gas Company (STEG) has published its annual report of activity for the year ended December 31, 2021, including financial statements for the same year.
The latter show a net loss of 42.6 million dinars, against a net loss of 60.2 million dinars in 2020.
The electricity and natural gas utility monopoly has achieved a turnover of 5.4 billion dinars last year, against 5.3 billion in 2020, an increase of about 2.7%.
Taking into account an operating subsidy of 1.4 billion dinars (against 100 million in 2020) and a cost of sale of 6.2 billion dinars (against 5.2 billion in 2020), the gross margin of STEG is positive 547.7 million dinars, against 156.3 million in 2020.
The operating income for the period is therefore a surplus of 304.4 million dinars, against 133.6 million at the end of December 2020, a growth of 128%.
However, the net financial charges have absorbed all the operating surplus. Indeed, these expenses have doubled last year to 342.4 million dinars, against 170.6 million at the end of 2020.
The outstanding long-term bank loans of STEG stood at 6.3 billion dinars, while that of short-term loans has reached 1.6 billion dinars. As for the heading suppliers and related accounts, it shows a balance of 4.2 billion dinars, against 2.6 billion in 2020.
In addition, the total number of active employees of the public company reached 13,854 at the end of last December, against 13,501 employees a year earlier.
Personnel costs amounted to 537.9 million dinars in 2021 against 505.4 million in 2020, an increase of 6.4% due mainly to the impact of regulatory negotiations and the recruitment of 563 new agents.
The sales of natural gas and LPG products went up 6.7% in 2021, compared to 2020, due to the increase in sales prices of LPG products and the increase in the quantities sold of natural gas, by 41.5% and 4.8%, respectively.
