Minister of Labor and Social Protection Alexei Buzu responded to the protesters’ demand that the Government should fully pay the citizens’ bills for the winter season. He noted that the authorities help the citizens with modest incomes to cope in winter by partially paying the gas, heat and electricity bills. The Government’s response to this demand is the subsidization system “Meter Assistance” that is efficient, targeted and is aimed at the most vulnerable citizens, IPN reports.
The minister said the Government helps the people to pay the higher bills by providing subsidies. The state also increased the pays and benefits so that the citizens could keep pace with the rise in prices.
“The public budget consists of the contributions paid by the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. This means that the Parliament, the Government, I as a minister must use these resources with maximum care, efficiency and transparency. At the moment, we have a mechanism by which we identify the persons with low incomes and offer them subsidies for the heat, gas and electricity bills to be lower. At present, the “Meter Assistance” system covers approximately 800,000 households. 80% of these were classed as highly vulnerable. This means that the Government pays half of the bill. We cannot offer subsidies to all the citizens of the Republic of Moldova as this would be a very expensive move. Furthermore, the Government needs to also deal with other problems, such as those from education, healthcare. We must have targeted programs for those with low incomes so as to subsidize them more and to subsidize less or not at all those with larger incomes,” Alexei Buzu stated in the program “Reflection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei channel.
In an antigovernment protest mounted on February 19 in central Chisinau by the National Movement for People, the protesters demanded that the Government should fully pay the bills for the winter months. The minister said such a demand is unrealistic as Moldova imports the energy resources.
“I don’t know states in which the bills for winter are fully paid. There are states that undertake to pay subsidies for gasoline, diesel fuel or other types of fuels am the experience of these countries is not the happiest one and should not be borrowed. These countries are producers, exporters of energy resources, gas or oil. We cannot do this. We need to also pay pensions, to make investments in healthcare, in infrastructure. We realize that it is a difficult period for families with low incomes. We took measures to ensure social protection and to also raise salaries in the public sector so as to alleviate the effects of the crisis. But our response is only through the “Meter Assistance” system through which the most vulnerable households receive subsidies in a targeted way,” stated the Minister of Labor and Social Protection.
In the antigovernment protest held last Sunday, the protesters adopted a resolution saying that the government is offered seven days to provide a response to the citizens’ demand to fully pay the bills for the winter season.
