Gas Feromont: Srbijagas won't honor prepayments, suits loom
Ten months after Srbijagas took over gas supply, it has not said how customers in Beska, Stara Pazova and nearby towns will be compensated, so they are preparing individual lawsuits.
Srbijagas still does not recognize the prepayments that gas customers in Beska, Stara Pazova, Indjija, Batajnica and Ruma made to Gas Feromont. Ten months have passed since it took over supply on December 1, 2025. According to one Beska resident, some households there have built up prepayments of up to 100,000 dinars (~850 EUR), paid in over the summer.
The government of Serbia decided that Srbijagas would take over supply from Gas Feromont, which served about 20,000 customers. Customers say they were not notified a month in advance of the change, so after December 1 they kept paying the previous supplier.
Who paid, and how much?
Tamara Romcevic of Beska learned of the takeover in late January 2026, and her first Srbijagas bill arrived only in February. By then she had already paid Gas Feromont about 31,000 dinars (~265 EUR).
“Srbijagas does not recognize my payment of 31,000 dinars to Gas Feromont after December 1,” Romcevic says. She adds: “The legal department is asking me to pay again for something that has already been paid.”
Romcevic has gathered about 20 residents and estimates that several hundred people, perhaps thousands, are affected. Most paid in over the summer, in amounts of 5,000, 10,000 or 15,000 dinars, so they would not face bills several times larger in winter. Ivana Nikic, also from Beska, said at the start of the year that she knows people whose prepayments range from 16,000 to 60,000 dinars (up to ~510 EUR), and that her own home is heated regardless, because gas is flowing.
Nikic explained then what customers are asking for:
“It is very important to know that people do not want the money back, only for it to be counted toward Srbijagas’s upcoming bills, because they planned it that way so they could get through the winter more easily.”
What does Srbijagas tell customers?
In a statement on January 19, 2026, Srbijagas said it took over supply solely to keep gas deliveries uninterrupted, and that prepayments remain a matter between the customer and the previous supplier:
“We stress that the takeover of supply did not transfer the previous supplier’s contractual obligations regarding financial claims and liabilities arising before the day JP Srbijagas began supplying. Prepayments, that is, overpaid funds, as well as obligations for gas deliveries up to December 1, 2025, arise from the contractual relationship concluded between the customer and the previous supplier, AD Gas Feromont.”
Srbijagas’s legal department told Romcevic orally that the takeover had been announced in the National Assembly in November, and in a written reply that the decisions were published on the company’s website. Romcevic does not accept that: “They were legally required to send us a letter a month before the takeover.” As for the website, she says most citizens are not digitally literate.
Srbijagas had not answered by the time of publication a question from the portal Danas about how customers could be compensated.
Why won’t Gas Feromont return the money?
Gas Feromont, citizens say, has its accounts blocked, and it told customers it cannot return prepayments until the accounts are unblocked. A reply that reached N1 at the start of the year also said talks on prepayments are under way, but with no clear deadlines.
Radomir Cirilovic of the consumer association “Prosperitet” explains the difference between the two takeovers. From Novi Sad Gas, taken over on October 1, 2026, Srbijagas took assets, rights, obligations and debts, while from Gas Feromont it legally did not take over financial obligations. That is why, he says, prepayments do not appear on the new bills. In his words, Srbijagas sees any refund only through Gas Feromont’s bankruptcy estate, and bankruptcy has not been opened:
“Let us start from the fact that bankruptcy proceedings have not yet been opened, and it is an open question when that will happen. Probably never.”
Cirilovic places the responsibility on Srbijagas: “Srbijagas is responsible, because how could it do business with someone who is insolvent?” In January and February the association asked institutions to explain how citizens would be compensated, and their position, according to Cirilovic, was that consumers must not be left worse off.
Can customers sue together?
They cannot, Cirilovic explains: the class action was introduced in 2011 and abolished in 2013, when the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional the chapter of the Civil Procedure Law that governed it. That leaves individual lawsuits, with an open question of whom they would be filed against.
Romcevic says the group of about 20 people plans to hire one lawyer if Srbijagas does not respond. That step, in her words, means the lawyer would file a separate lawsuit for each of them.
How many customers does Srbijagas have after the takeover?
Cirilovic says Srbijagas previously had about 30,000 connected customers, and after taking over Gas Feromont and Novi Sad Gas it has more than 100,000. Gas Feromont had about 20,000 customers, and about 50,000 individual customers and 20,000 legal entities came over from Novi Sad Gas.
