The chairman of the National Public Association “Consumer Protection” Piotr Guțul said the Republic of Moldova has been a captured state since 1991 and a number of enterprises were sold, robbed or destroyed in the period. This fact negatively influenced the state of affairs in the county and the incomes of pensioners and other vulnerable categories of people.

In a news conference at IPN, Piotr Guțul said that by raising the water and heat charges and other tariffs, the rights of consumers are violated. He went to different institutions to demand that the rights of consumers should be respected, but he was refused everywhere. A violation is also the fact that the person is made to pay for more than this consumes. He referred to the difference in the volumes of water measured by the common block meter and the individual apartment meters that is paid by consumers. A solution is for the supplier to install the trusted water meters in apartments at its own expense.

Association member Vladimir Shitinin spoke in the name of veterans and pensioners. He said it is not fair when the highest pension in the country exceeds the smallest one 50 times. The pension paid to over 600,000 persons is small and is not enough to pay for public utilities. But the people also need food, medicines, clothing and other basic necessities. The pensioners survive with the financial resources saved in time.

Iluță Ion, a member of the organization, said the heat supplier unjustifiably collects money from dwellers with individual heating systems for the pipes that go through their apartments and connect the lower and upper floors. Initially, the tariff was of 5% of the heat bill, but in different periods reached even 20%. The law that envisions payments for these pipes should be annulled.

Another member of the organization Constantin Tabuncic called on the pensioners to take to the streets and demand that their rights be respected.