Appeals Court orders Chisinau Council to raise heating charge

The Chisinau Appellate Court on Friday, March 21, ruled in favor of Chisinau’s heat distributor Termocom, ordering the City Council to issue an administrative act on adjusting the charge for heat. The municipality was quick to announce it would challenge the judgment in the superior court, Info-Prim Neo reports. Although the heat supplier demanded that the Council must raise the heating charge today, the court decided to give the local councilors a break of 15 days to enforce the judgment. The City Hall’s PR department said the Council would appeal the decision in the Supreme Court of Justice, most likely after March 26, when the Court of Appeals is to officially notify its judgment in writing. In the meantime, the municipality will go on making its own calculations on the heating charge. The specialized municipal divisions are now assessing network losses and are calculating the real cost of the tariff for 2007, as well as for the next heating season. Earlier, the Court of Appeals annulled the City Council’s decision whereby the heating charge was lowered. That judgment was also appealed in a higher court, but a final decision hasn’t been announced yet. In a second suit lodged with the Economic Court, Termocom seeks to make the municipality pay 125 million lei for the heat supplied to Chisinau in December and January.