Kyiv residents are being charged a penalty for non-payment of utility bills, Kyivteploenergo

According to the official, the total debt of Kyiv residents for the services provided by the company has crossed a record high of almost UAH 6.5 billion.

“The total amount of this debt significantly affects the company’s ability to carry out activities related to the preparation of the city’s heating sector for work in the autumn and winter,” Lopatin said,

– lopatin said.

According to him, the company has more than a million consumers, of whom almost 160,000 have debts, and half of these debtors can be classified as systemic, meaning those who do not pay their debts on a regular basis. It is because of them that Kyivteploenergo lacks funds for repairs and payments for natural gas consumed.

“This includes replacing damaged sections of heating networks, conducting hydraulic tests, scheduled repairs of heat-generating equipment, and restoring facilities damaged by missile attacks. Of course, the main thing is to resolve the situation with payments for natural gas consumed, as more than 80% of the tariff for heat supply services is the cost of natural gas,” he explained,

– explained Konstantin Lopatin.

The company is constantly working on debt collection, the official said, but these actions are not enough.

“Therefore, as a result of chronic non-payment, we, as a service provider, were forced to apply additional sanctions to consumers who can be classified as chronic debtors since June this year: charging a penalty of one hundredth of a per cent for each day of delay in payment for consumed housing and communal services,”

– said the director of the Energy Sales division of Kyivteploenergo.

In order for the penalty to appear on the bill, the customer must have a stable debt amount that was formed as of the date of the moratorium’s lifting, i.e. 01 January 2024, and which is still outstanding as of today.

“First and foremost, the penalty will be charged to the 9% of our customers who did not make any payments for the services consumed during the heating season of 2023-2024: heat and hot water supply,” said Kostyantyn Lopatin,

– said Kostiantyn Lopatin.

It should be noted that the penalty will not be charged to those customers who have debts to the pension fund for subsidies or benefits or documented information on non-payment of wages.

on 29 December 2023, by Resolution No. 1405, the Government of Ukraine reintroduced the normal rules for payment of utility bills and lifted previous restrictions on the application of penalties for non-payment. From now on, utility service providers may again impose fines and penalties and demand repayment of debts from consumers. Thus, according to the resolution, utility companies are now entitled to suspend services to non-payers.

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