Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca says Termocom’s debts should not be only the municipality’s task

The debts of Termocom SA should not belong to the Chisinau City Hall only, even if the municipality was entrusted with the task to deal with them, Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca believes. On Monday, July 16, Chirtoaca told reporters that the General Finance Division was empowered to pay 50 million lei from the local budget to cover partially the debts to Termocom, which total about 150 mln lei. The municipality asked the Government to cover a part of these debts. The mayor justified his request towards the central authorities by the fact that the compensations are paid from public money and it was the ruling party that assumed this responsibility when the communist councillors voted to compensate for the increased tariffs at the start of the year. At the same time, Dorin Chirtoaca said that the municipality’s debts to the thermal energy supplier will not endanger the preparations for the cold season, stressing that the process takes place according to plan. At Monday’s meeting of the City Hall, Mihai Arusoi, commercial director of Termocom SA, said that so far the population paid the heating tariff of 233 lei in proportion of 100%. Cumulatively with the debts of the municipality, the level of payments for the thermal energy is about 70%. According to him, 800 mln lei of the enterprise’s debts of about 1.8 bln lei has been accumulated in the past years because the local authorities maintained an unreal tariff. Arusoi said that if the Economic Court on 26 July does not declare the enterprise bankrupt again and does not extend the period during which the company is managed by the Creditors Council, as it happened in 2001, Termocom will be again managed by the local public administration, which holds about 72% of its shares. The Chisinau Municipal Council on 25 January decided to increase the heating tariff from 233 lei to 540 lei per gigacalorie. The decision took effect on January 1, 2007. But the Council also decided that the population will pay 233 lei for heating until the next heating season, and the difference between tariffs will be covered from the local budget. But there was indicated no concrete source of financing. Recently, the new administration of the municipality ascertained that the local budget fulfilled its obligation towards Termocom partially, as there were paid only 40 mln lei of the total debt of about 190 mln lei. The local authorities earlier intended to ask the Government to contribute money to cover half of the difference in tariff, but the request was probably not made or the Government passed it over.