As from August 1, the elevator maintenance charge in the housing sector of Chisinau will be 27 lei, up from 15 lei at present, as the Municipal Council decided following the examination of a report on the financial situation of the municipal enterprise “Liftservice”, IPN reports.

The enterprise’s acting manager Petru Budurin, in the July 12 meeting of the Council, said that “Liftservice” has sustained losses since 2020. In the first five months of this year alone, the losses amounted to 608,000 lei. The current charge was approved by the Council back in 2009.

“The financial situation is precarious. This month we must pay 1.3 million lei salaries and we collected only 1.2 million lei. We borrowed 100,000 lei from the enterprise “Infocom”,” stated the functionary. According to him, the adjustment of the charge will enable to increase the salaries of workers who are enticed by the private sector and to also pay for heat, electricity and metal.

The municipal enterprise “Liftservice” maintains 2,593 elevators. Petru Budurin said that 95% of the elevators have been used longer than 25 years, which is their standard life cycle. Some of them have been used for even 47 years. The average age of elevators is 34 years. An electrical mechanic serves on average 75 elevators, but the norm is 30 elevators.

The elevator maintenance charge is not paid by persons who live on the first floor and by children younger than three.