TIRANA, Dec. 2 – Albania’s government has approved a new scheme to make it easier for the country’s poorest families to pay accumulated electricity bills.
They will no longer have to pay any accumulated interest and fees on their overdue bills, the prime minister announced this week.
Prime Minister Edi Rama said that about 25,000 families that received social assistance and are in good standing with their installment agreements with the state-owned power distribution company, OSHEE, will benefit from the scheme. They still have to pay the principal debt they owe the company.
The beneficiaries would have to sign a new contract by Jan. 31, 2016.
There are about 7,000 other families that receive social assistance and welfare payments but which are not in good order with the OSHEE or have no proper contracts. They will have the chance to sign a new agreement with a monthly installment of 1,200 leks on top of their regular bills. They will no longer have to pay accumulate interests, Rama said.
All those in the scheme would have to pay a symbolic 20 lek (0.17 euro) fee so for legal purposes this will not be a forgiveness of interest, just lowering it to near zero.
The government’s move comes as the opposition Democratic Party had promised to erase accumulated interest rates and fees for all those who pay their delayed bills.
The Democrats accused the government of copying their proposal for political reasons.
More than a year after the start of its massive electricity bill payment and anti-theft campaign, the Albanian government has declared the effort a success.
As of the end of October, the state-owned power distribution company has collected this year more than $200 million more than it did in 2013, and $150 million more than in 2014.
A year ago, the government started a campaign to collect overdue and unpaid power bills from the consumers and to stop rampant theft from unregistered users of electricity. Many Albanians faced power cuts, fines and imprisonments as part of the campaign. There were also more than 3,000 arrests on power theft charges.
About 300,000 new consumers, including businesses, signed new contracts with the state-owned power distribution corporation, OSHEE, authorities said. OSHEE executives said in October that the company was no longer a burden to the government’s coffers. It would now be a contributor.
