Termocom wins suit against Chisinau Council

The Chisinau Court of Appeals has ruled in favour of Chisinau’s heat distributor Termocom in a suit against the Municipal Council (CMC), Info-Prim Neo reports. Termocom took action in court seeking the annulment of the CMC decision of December 4 that rendered void the tariff of 540 lei charged for 1 Gcal of heat, fixed by the CMC on January 25, 2007. Deputy Mayor Mihai Furtuna stated that the municipality will appeal the judgment in the Supreme Court of Justice. Furtuna labelled Termocom’s actions as being illegal and unfair, because the decision of 25 January 2007 was adopted in breach of the current legislation, especially as the city budget had no available resources to cover the difference in tariffs. In addition, the deputy mayor noted that when approving the decision to increase the tariff, the councillors didn’t take into account the assessments made by the Law Department and the Finance Division, and that the draft decision was not countersigned by the person who chaired that meeting, Councillor Oleg Cernei. At the same time, Veaceslav Eni, head of Termocom’s law department, told reporters that the CMC’s decision to re-establish the old tariff was devoid of legal ground. On December 4, 2007, the City Council quashed the tariff of 540 lei for heat, restoring for an unspecified period the older tariff of 233 lei. The decision was backed with the vote of 27 councillors representing the majority coalition and the Humanist-Democratic group.