* The Proprietatea Fund claims the Central Depository raised its fees abusively

* Rareş Nilaş, DC: "Most of the new commissions have been imposed by the Bucharest Stock Exchange"

The management of the Proprietatea Fund yesterday vehemently criticized the decision of the Central Depository to raise the commissions it charges for transactions involving shares of the Fund, and it announced it is considering the avenues of attack it has available for challenging the increase of the commissions by the Central Depository, including notifications sent to the Competition Council.

The increase of the commissions perceived by the Central Depository for trades involving stock in the Proprietatea Fund was decided in last week"s General Assembly at the last minute, and it came into effect on June 1st. The proposal to increase fees came at from the current board of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, which is the majority shareholder of the Depository.

The management of the Proprietatea Fund dubbed the action of the Depository as "abusive, excessive and without any practical justification".

Ionuţ Popescu, the general manager of the Fund and holder of 19 million shares in the fund said: "The people of the Depository had the revelation that the most trades are done with the shares of the Proprietatea Fund and that"s where the bulk of commissions comes from. The increase of the fees affects any shareholder of the Fund that wants to buy and sell shares in it. I am not concerned with the fact that there are people doing speculative transactions and that the people involved have acquired those shares from other buyers. I now need to defend the interests of all shareholders. I for one am not too affected by the higher commissions because I haven"t personally sold or bought stocks, I am waiting for the Fund to be listed".

Rareş Nilaş, member in the Board of D