Citizens cannot be charged for a utility service that was not actually provided, stated First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Svyrydenko during the government question hour in parliament, commenting on appeals regarding heat charges for Kyiv residents who received bills for January despite the lack of heat supply in certain buildings, UNN reports.
Details
"Currently, citizens of Ukraine, especially residents of the city of Kyiv, are reaching out en masse. In January, the President of Ukraine instructed the government that utility payments should not be charged to people for services that are not provided. In Kyiv, heat was not supplied to apartment buildings in January. Now, in June, Kyivteploenergo has mass-billed Kyiv residents and issued payments for the heat that was not provided in January," noted Member of Parliament Mykhailo Papiev.
Commenting on the situation, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that in the absence of service, charging payments is unacceptable.
You are absolutely right; where services were not provided, it is absolutely obvious and objective that bills cannot be issued. In those cases, bills should arrive with zeros. Let's check everything by specific addresses; Vice Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba is handling this issue, and a corresponding instruction will be issued now after the question hour. There should be no bills for payment if the service was not delivered. We have also adopted relevant government decisions,
Recall
In June, Kyiv residents began receiving heating bills for January. Kyivteploenergo stated that as a result of winter shelling, there were interruptions in heat supply, as well as cases of insufficient coolant parameters, which is why charges to Kyiv residents for centralized heating and thermal energy supply for January 2024 were not processed in February, so the bills began arriving in June.