The payment rate of utility bills in January was the lowest in the last six years, Ion Margineanu, the head of the Municipal Company “Infocom”, which processes 70% of the invoices for the Chisinau residents, said on Monday, March 9, Info-Prim Neo reports. The population paid 62 million lei of the 266 million invoiced in 44 types of bills for public and nonpublic utilities, plus debts. “The people wait for the compensations for heat to be calculated,” Margineanu explained. At the same meeting, the acting mayor of Chisinau Vlad Cotet said that about 15,000 people filed applications for being offered compensations. He also said that the regulations concerning the provision of compensation will be modified so that the applicant will bear responsibility for the accurateness of the declared incomes. “We do not have now a clear mechanism for checking the incomes of the applicant. Therefore, the persons will have to take responsibility for the incomes indicated in the application for compensations,” the acting mayor said. The amendment will take effect only after the Chisinau Municipal Council approves it. Many Chisinau residents expressed their indignation at the fact that the January heating bills were too large and said they would not pay because the temperature in many apartments during the first two weeks of the year was lower than 18 degrees Celsius owing to the gas crisis.