Mayor of Artsyz explains rise in water prices by financial impasse

The mayor of Artsyz in Odesa Oblast, Serhiy Parpulansky, said that the city council decided to increase tariffs for water supply and sewage due to financial impasse.

According to the mayor, in 2024 and early 2025, the city council compensated the difference in tariffs for the Vodokanal utility company on a monthly basis, but this is no longer possible.

"In the first 6 months of this year, more than UAH 3 million was spent on this. However, for several months, the city council, according to the official, could not compensate for this difference due to the lack of funds in the budget, and the company's debt to the electricity supplier increased to UAH 1.2 million," the mayor said.

According to the official, the company's expenses have increased for several reasons:

• The cost of electricity has almost doubled over the past two years, from six hryvnias per kilowatt to 11.5 hryvnias.
• To book employees, the company is obliged to pay an average salary of 13.7 thousand hryvnias (according to a Cabinet of Ministers resolution).
• Taxes and fees have increased: land tax, subsoil use fee, and environmental tax.

To maintain the current tariff, 7.2 million hryvnias are needed per year, which means about 3 million more by the end of this year.

Cancel tariffs

According to the city council, the abolition of the increased tariffs will lead to the accumulation of electricity debts of up to UAH 7 million.

Reaction

The mayor's statement, as well as the tariff increase itself, caused dissatisfaction among the population, as in the comments under Serhiy Parpulansky's post he was pointed to a violation of the procedure for making such decisions established by law.

For example, MP Tetiana Honcharova pointed out that the decision to raise the tariffs was not submitted for public discussion. The draft decision, as well as the calculations on the basis of which the tariff was increased, were not made public 10 days before the session, and the executive committee did not publish an analysis of the purchasing power of the population.

Кирило Бойко