New water charge for Apa-Canal Chisinau SA implies unforeseen expenses

Apa-Canal Chisinau SA is looking for solutions to cover the new expenses unplanned in the 2008 budget, Info-Prim Neo reports. At Monday’s meeting of the Chisinau City Hall, the company’s director Constantin Becciev said that Apa-Canal Chisinau faces new expenses that were not included in the budget for 2008. According to him, this year the company is obliged to pay over 45 million lei into the state budget. This money represents the water tax that in 2008 rose 30 times compared with the previous years. Under the Fiscal Code, the payments must be made in quarterly installments as from January 1, 2008. Thus, the first installment must be paid soon. To make a comparison, Constantin Becciev said that the similar expenses in 2007 totaled only 1.3 million lei. The company’s director also said that these and the investment expenses had not been included in the current water charge. Therefore, a clear decision for regulating the charge must be made so that Apa-Canal SA could work further. Constantin Becciev said that there are two solutions to the given problem. On the one hand, the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) can gradually increase the water charge, including the necessary investments besides expenses. On the other hand, the situation could be redressed by establishing a public-private partnership with international operators that would implement investment projects to improve the company’s state. According to Becciev, the second variant would enable to stop the rapid rise in charges in the next years owing to the investments of the private partner and, as a result, to considerably reduce the losses in the field. At the meeting, the Mayor General of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca said that it is very important that the company’s activity is further monitored because the meetings and analyses within CMC will center on the present efficiency of the water supplier. The emphasis will be laid on the correct administration of the expenses, on the interventions aimed at stopping water losses and the rapidity with which the leaks are fixed, on the professionalism of the employees and other problems faced by the company. In this development, Constantin Becciev said that the water losses at the moment make up 37%. During the past six years, they decreased from 50 to 30 million m3 a year. This is one of the best indicators in this zone of Europe. In this period, the company managed to reduce the specific power consumption by over 10%, while the payment collection rate rose from 70% to 100 % etc. But, taking into consideration the low level of financing for the company in this period, the municipal water supply system could be seriously disrupted. According to the mayor, the proposal to attract foreign operators put forward by Constantin Becciev could be discussed only when the company rationalizes the expenses.