In the following year, the water in Pljevlja collects

The board of directors of the Pljeval municipal company Vodovod made a decision to increase the price of water, which was approved by the Regulatory Agency for Energy and Regulated Communal Services.

If the members of the local parliament vote for the new price list, the new water prices will start to apply from January of the following year.

Due to the complex way in which it is calculated, it is difficult to state the amount of the increase in the price of water, because it will depend on consumption, considering that there is a fixed and variable part on the bill, which depends on the final amount of the bill.

From January 1, the citizens of Pljevlja pay a cubic meter of water at a price that is reduced by ten percent compared to the December bill, and this price will be valid until the end of the year. The residents of Pljevlja got a lower water price thanks to the fact that the local parliament, in which the DPS with its coalition partners had a majority, did not hold a session last year where consent was to be given to the new prices established by the Regulatory Agency.

The regulatory price for energy and regulated communal activities at the end of last year determined the price of water for the citizens and the economy of Pljevlja, which should have been increased by between eight and ten percent compared to last year's price. Vodovod has calculated that households that consume 10 cubic meters per month will receive a monthly bill of 9,88 euros including VAT, which is 3,54 euros or 55,91 percent more than the previous bill.

For the same amount of water, legal entities will pay 16,58 euros or 16,05 percent more than before.

Households that consume 30 cubic meters per month will receive a bill of 25,86, which is 76,17 percent higher than the current bill.

Legal entities for that amount of water will pay 44,42 euros or 26,87 percent more than before. The fixed part of the accounts will be reduced by 12,77 percent for households and will amount to 1,89 euros, and for legal entities 2,65 euros and will be less by 32 percent. Along with water bills, the service of receiving and removing municipal waste water is shown.

Biljana Đondović, Acting Director of the Water Supply Company, said that the main reason why the prices of the variable part of services are increasing is that there are no subsidies from the Municipality for the payment of operating expenses of the Water Supply Company for the year 2024.

"Those subsidies are included as an element for determining the regulatory income, that is, the price of services. Subsidies were not planned for 2023 either, however, since the Company did not receive price approval from the Municipal Assembly of Pljevlja, temporary prices will be applied in 2023 that are 10 percent lower compared to December 2022," she said. Đondović to "Vijesta". She took over the management of the waterworks two and a half months ago.

Last year, Vodovod operated with a loss of almost 235.000 euros, while the total undistributed loss from previous years reached the amount of 2,65 million euros. Based on the tax debt reprogram from 2014, the company owes 905.000 euros, and 976.000 euros based on the 2022 reprogram. The company has not paid a single cent based on the obligations from the contract on the reprogramming of the tax debt, which was signed in November last year in the amount of 976 euros. The company, as committed to the contract, was supposed to pay ten percent of the debt amount immediately, and repay the rest in installments of 134 euros.

At the end of last year, 118 workers were permanently employed in Vodovod, and 15 workers were hired through the temporary employment agency. Out of the mentioned number, 29 of them are employed at the waste water treatment plant, for which, in accordance with the contract on entrusting the management and maintenance of the waste water treatment plant, the gross salary costs are reimbursed by the Municipality of Pljevlja.

Total expenditures in 2022 amounted to 2.181.673 euros. 1.243.895 euros were spent on wages, salary allowances and other personal income. The income of Vodovod based on the services of public water supply and the acceptance and disposal of municipal wastewater last year amounted to 804.000 euros, and for the next year they are planned to be 1.014 million euros.

The President of the Board of Directors of Vodovod, Miroslav Anđelić, recently announced that the former management of Vodovod, led by DPS staff, hired ten new workers for an indefinite period in April and May alone, and extended the contracts of several of them who were hired under a work contract. until the end of the year.

"In addition to the extremely difficult financial situation, the company is burdened with ten more earnings. At the same time, the contracts of the people hired through the Agency were extended until the end of the year, and all this was done before we came to the head of the Waterworks. For some of them, whose contracts expired in June, they did not wait for them to expire, but extended them until the end of the year. They tied our hands in that way, and it seems to me that their intention was to put us in the worst possible situation," Anđelić said.

Vodovod believes that without recapitalization of the founder, the Municipality of Pljevlja, Vodovod cannot get out of the current situation and will not have money to finance regular activities.

He said that for the past fifteen years, Vodovod has operated with a loss ranging between 150.000 and half a million euros every year.