The municipality of Pljevlja will have to pay around 1,016 million euros to the local company Vodovod next year in order to compensate them for the income they were left without, after councilors recently did not agree to the increase in water prices, which was set by the Agency for Energy and Regulated Utilities.
Allocating so much, of which part of the money is foreseen in the draft budget for the next year, represents a great burden on municipal finances, but the local administration says that they did not want to transfer the financial problems of the Water Supply to the citizens, through the increase of water bills.
According to the law, if the Assembly does not approve the price list, temporary prices will be applied, which will be ten percent lower than the current ones, and the difference up to the amount of the price approved by the Agency will have to be compensated by the Municipality of Pljevlja.
Thus, starting next year, instead of a drastic increase of 153 percent, the citizens of Pljevlja will receive a ten percent reduction in their water bills.
The Secretary of the Secretariat for Finances of the Municipality of Pljevlja, Vladan Aničić, previously expressed his concern over the fact that, due to non-approval of the price list, the Municipality will have to allocate 1,4 million euros annually to Vodovod to cover the price difference determined by the Regulatory Agency.
Aničić said that a solution must be sought for the water supply problems, expressing concern about the large allocation from the budget on that basis.
The regulatory agency gave consent to Vodovod to increase the fixed part of the service price on a monthly basis from 1.5895 to 3,6142 euros per user, and the variable part from 0.6388 to 1,6016 euros. Along with water bills, the service of receiving and removing municipal waste water is shown.
Since the New Year, the price of water in Pljevlja has risen by about 65 percent.
Pljevlja Waterworks is in an extremely bad financial situation with an accumulated loss of almost three million euros. Last year, he operated with a loss of 90.000 euros. Overdue liabilities amount to EUR 3,3 million. It has 8.115 users and annually delivers about 880.000 cubic meters of water to users.
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