The PAS faction in the City Council refers the decision to increase the public water and sewerage tariff to the Public Prosecutor’s Office
PAS municipal councillors Roman Cojuhari, Zinaida Popa and Dumitru Ivanov announced on Wednesday, November 30, that they will file a complaint with the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) regarding the decision of the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) to increase the tariff for public water supply and sewage services.
Roman Cojuhari, chairman of the PAS faction in the CMC, says that the members of the CMC voted on Tuesday, 29 November, in a closed session, on a decision to increase the water and sewage tariffs almost twofold.
“Today I came to the Prosecutor’s Office to file a complaint (…). We consider this decision to be totally illegal and those who issued this decision, those who voted for this decision, have committed serious violations, which the competent courts must address (…). We believe that the water and sewage tariff must be fair and transparent so that the inhabitants of the municipality of Chisinau know what they are paying this tariff for, for what expenses they are paying. Those expenses that are presented to ANRE have no coverage and no logical explanation (…)”, said Roman Cojuhari.
On 25 November, the CMC approved an increase in the tariff for the public water supply and sewerage service. According to an amendment voted by councillors, the tariffs will apply until the National Agency for Energy Regulation (ANRE) issues its opinion on the calculations presented.
On the other hand, ANRE representatives said they would refer the matter to the State Chancellery to verify the “legality of the acts issued” and to the Public Prosecutor’s Office to explain the calculation made by Apă-Canal.
According to the draft approved by the municipal councillors at the time, for domestic consumers, the average tariff calculated for the public drinking water supply service will be 16.32 lei/m3, and for the sewage service – 6.62 lei (excluding VAT), while for non-household consumers the tariff of 16.32 lei for water and 10.26 lei for sewage (excluding VAT) was approved.
The current tariff paid by Chisinau residents is almost 11 lei per cubic metre of water.
