Govt to pardon unpaid electricity bills

TIRANA, March 23 – Government announced on Wednesday it will pardon all unpaid electricity bills for people in need and those with insufficient income before March 2009 when the electricity distributor operator was taken over by Czech Republic’s CEZ.
Speaking at a government meeting on Wednesday, Prime Minister Sali Berisha said the pardon will include families receiving financial assistance, pensioners receiving minimum pensions, people with disabilities, widowed women, and orphans. These bills will be considered paid by the Albanian Power Corporation,” said Berisha.
Berisha said the pardon was being made on the occasion of March 22, which is the anniversary of the Democratic Party coming to power in 1992 following the collapse of the communist regime.
“The law must be sent to parliament before March 22. I hope the opposition examines this initiative,” added Berisha.
In March 2009, CEZ signed a contract with the Albanian government after buying 76 percent of distribution operator OSSH’s state-owned shares for 102 million euros.
Meanwhile, the Energy Regulatory Entity, ERE, is already working on a new draft contract which will oblige electricity distribution operator run Czech Republic’s CEZ to take responsibility for power failures. The contract which is in its final phase of discussion with interest groups came after continuous complaints mostly by business but also household consumers over the poor quality of electricity offered by the electricity distribution operator, privatized by Czech Republic’s CEZ since March 2009. Last December, Albania’s Energy Regulatory Agency (ERE) decided to keep electricity prices for 2011 unchanged, turning down requests by the three local operators which would increase power prices by an average of 12 percent for 2011.
ERE’s board of commissioners decided to continue applying the two-tier price level, under which Albanian households will pay 7.7 lek/kWh for a consumption of up to 300 kWh a month and 13.5 lek for each kWh they consume above the 300 kWh threshold.