‘Over 900 thousand subscribers unable to pay electricity, natural gas bills in 2020’

* Photo: Canva

Click to read the article in Turkish

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Niğde MP Ömer Fethi Gürer submitted a Parliamentary question about the inability of thousands of citizens to pay their electricity and natural gas bills.

In his Parliamentary question addressed to Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Dönmez, CHP's Gürer asked:

• What is the amount of money collected by electricity and natural gas companies from subscribers in the name of security deposit?
• Is there anyone who has quitted subscription and got back the security deposit in the last five years?
• What is the number of subscribers whose security deposit was turned into collection because they were unable to pay their bills?
• What is the number of subscribers whose subscription was cancelled because they were unable to pay their bills in 2020?
• What is the number of citizens who are unable to pay their electricity, water, natural gas, telephone and internet bills?

What does the data say?

According to the answer of the minister to these questions, the number of subscribers whose security deposit was deducted in 2020 on the grounds that they were unable to pay their debts on time was 185,408 for electricity (dwelling) and 617,947 for natural gas (dwelling).

Minister Dönmez has shared the following numerical data about the subscribers whose electricity and natural gas were cut or whose subscriptions were cancelled because they could not pay their bills:

"By the end of 2020, of the 320,802,228 electricity bills (dwelling) produced, 0.92 percent of the electricity subscribers who did not fulfill their obligations stipulated in their contracts faced temporary cuts and the contracts of 0.03 percent of them were terminated.

"Of the 169,575,739 natural gas bills (dwelling), 0.43 percent of the natural gas subscribers who did not fulfil their obligations stipulated in their contracts faced temporary cuts and the contracts of 0.03 percent were terminated. All subscribers who fulfilled their obligations as per the regulations have been ensured that they are provided with electricity and natural gas again."

400 thousand subscribers faced cuts

Against this backdrop, CHP's Gürer has said that this situation is one of the important indicators of the economic crisis in Turkey.

Recalling that 0.92 percent of the electricity subscribers who could not pay their bills were faced with temporary cuts, Gürer has underlined that this rate accounts for nearly 400 thousand subscribers among 46 million.

"The problems caused by the economic crisis, high inflation rates and coronavirus have decreased the purchasing power of citizens, bringing them to such a point that they are unable to pay their electricity and natural gas bills. People with fixed and low incomes are in dire straits," he has said, noting that successive hikes in prices have brought the people with low and fixed incomes to a point where they are no longer able to pay their bills.

Noting that the 15-percent increase in electricity prices in July and the following regular price increases have affected citizens from all segments of society, Gürer has raised concerns that "while citizens are having difficulty paying their bills, those producing energy are standing on their profits and not shying away from putting the entire burden of the economic crisis on citizens." (DŞ/SD)