Andrei Lubenski: So, utilities debts will not be cancelled in Ukraine?

Recently, PRAVDA.Ru reported on the law “About Writing off and Restructuring the Population’s Debts in Payments for Flats, Utilities, Gas and Electric Energy, which had been passed by the Ukrainian parliament. First of all, this concerns the citizens whose incomes last year were under the living wage. According to the new law, the restructurization of debts is intended for 60 months. However, at once, some doubts have appeared that this law will never come into effect.

At the meeting of Democratic Union party with journalists in Cherkassy, organized by Electorate Committee of Ukraine, Alexei Marchenko, the faction’s member said that in his view, any debts would be written off this year. Although the Supreme Rada has passed this law, it does not mean anything.

The parliamentarians simply could not help voting in another way, taking into account the coming election; however, the president on no account will sign this law. Alexei Marchenko called the mass media representatives to deliver the information to the population, because while waiting for this law to come into effect, people have quit paying for utilities, even the people who earlier did. According to the deputy, the law is a real example of populism, while it gives nothing to simple people: pensioners are the most frequent payers, while among “debtors,” there are many people who could pay. If the law comes into effect, the debts of the population will be covered from budgetary means, so that ones who pay for utilities will pay twice. The deputy admitted that half of the faction’s members had voted for the populist law, which could be explained with the fear of the electorate. There is the newspaper, Dosvitni Ogni, that publishes lists of individual voting, the deputy said. Sometimes, this negatively influences the deputies’ rating. However, even the faction’s members who were for this law account on the president’s veto. Most of other deputies who voted for the debts’ writing-off because of the election also hope for this. Therefore, the deputies do not intend to go to barricades for this law, except for the left, probably. However, the issue of debts should be settled anyway. According to some statistics, today, the population’s debts make up about $ 1,120,000,000.

Andrei Lubenski PRAVDA.Ru Ukraine

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2001/12/04/34496.html