CMC declines mayor’s initiative to allocate heat compensations to Chisinau residents on low incomes

The Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) did not accept Mayor General Dorin Chirtoaca’s proposal to allocate heat compensations to the townspeople on low incomes. Most of the councillors abstained when a relevant draft decision was put to the vote. During debates, a number of councillors said that if the decision to cancel the charge of 540 lei per G-calorie is approved, there will be no need to allot nominative compensations because the charge will be 233 lei as before. Moreover, the councilmen consider that it is the duty of the Government not of the CMC to provide compensations to the socially vulnerable categories of people. The mayor justified the intention to allocate compensations to the deprive strata by the fact that the City Hall is now obliged to cover the difference in charges of 307 lei from the local budget for all the consumers and pay it to the heat supplier Termocom. The city administration intends to allocate compensations worth about 70 mln lei to the needy consumers in Chisinau for paying the heat bills for the next heating season. This sum would have been a considerable economy for the local budget. The budget expenditure on heat compensations for the last heating season adds up to 300 mln lei. Under the draft decision, the heat compensations were to be paid to the families whose members earn less than the minimum subsistence level, which is assessed at 935 lei.