Bucharest City Hall would pay off its debt of 220 million lei to Termoenergetica at the end of this year, General Mayor Nicușor Dan said on Thursday. The mayor also stated that “in the coming days” the debt will be reduced to 140 million lei.

“Regarding the debt situation, there is currently a debt of approximately 220 million lei of PMB to Termoenergetica. In the coming days, we will reduce this debt to approximately 140 million lei, because we have just received the broken down quotas from… as we receive the broken down quotas from the income tax on the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th of every month. And by the end of this year, we will be at zero with what we owe Termoenergetica.

”We are exactly in the situation of last year, 2021, the first year in which we paid in full what we had to pay for the thermal subsidy, i.e. the difference between how much it costs and how much the citizens of Bucharest pay, in the sense that the November invoice comes in January, the December invoice comes in February and we have great difficulties at the beginning of the year to pay these bills. And we accumulate debts that go up to 400-500 million. After which, starting from July, when the invoice is for May or sometimes even in June, when the invoice is for April, we manage to recover from this debt, that is, the invoice comes for 20-30 million and we pay 100, or 110 or 120… In 2022, as in 2021, we will be at zero with the current debt to Termoenergetica,” said Nicușor Dan, according to Agerpres.

The Mayor of the Capital drew attention to the fact that there are still debts of approximately 600 million lei for which he requested the Government’s support.

“There are some debts accumulated from the past and some differences between the real price of a gigacalorie and the price approved by the ANRE, which accumulate… 2020, 2021, 2022, are estimated somewhere at 600 million lei. And these 600 million lei in chain are a debt of Termoenergeticia to ELCEN and of ELCEN to, mainly, Romgaz. And for these we requested the Government’s support and I am optimistic that it will give it to us, especially since, I have said this publicly, in this thermal year, which started in the fall of last year, several TAUs benefited from support from the Government side.”