Chisinau mayor reiterates financial assistance for vulnerable families in connection with rate hikes

In the wake of the rise in rates for heating, gas and electricity announced by the National Agency for Energy Regulation, Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca reiterated that the municipality would continue offering relief payments to cover 40 percent of the heating costs of the vulnerable families. Today some 20,000 families, or 10 percent of the city's population benefit from this assistance, Info-Prim Neo reports. “Several years ago Moldova received an European grant of 2 million euros to devise a mechanism of offering compensations to the population, but the communist government, although professing to pursue social policies, didn't do that and the aid was given only to the persons whose monthly incomes were under 450 lei”, said Dorin Chirtoaca. The Chisinau mayoral administration launched a project to support the vulnerable population in November 2008 without any external support, when the City Council approved the regulation for heating compensations. Also then, the municipal authorities decided to discontinue subsidizing the monopoly Termocom, which had received some 600 million lei from the municipal budget in two years. For the 2009/10 heating season the municipality budgeted 27 million lei for compensations. According to estimations made by the municipal enterprise Infocom and the department for public amenities, in November 2009 the municipality allocated roughly 160 lei to an one-room apartment, at an average heating bill of 300-400 lei; 230 lei for a two-roomed apartment, at a bill of 500-550 lei; and 327 lei for a three-roomed apartment, at a bill of 600 lei. After the heating rate was raised from 540 lei to 699 lei per gigacalorie, the allocation for an one-room apartment will be 200 lei, at an estimated bill of 490-500 lei; 300 lei for a two-roomed apartment, at a bill of 700 lei; and 420 lei for a three-roomed apartment, at a bill of 900 lei. The sum on the bill may rise with the drop in temperatures and vice versa. To qualify for such compensations, the potential beneficiaries must have monthly incomes of 1,450 lei or lower per family member. At the same time, Chirtoaca said he would not ask the government for financial aid in connection with the rate hikes.