In the last two years, more than the quarter of the population had their power or natural gas turned off by the government because they failed to pay the bill
Turkey is a country with a population of 82 millions. In the last two years, more than the quarter of the population had their power or natural gas turned off by the government because they failed to pay the bill.
Forced to answer a question from the main opposition party, the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources disclosed that the people of Turkey are having a very hard time paying their basic utilities.
With privatization at each node of the electrical power generation and distribution, private companies jump in to the fray to get a piece of the action and maximize their profits, some guaranteed by the government.
Customers of electrical power often publish their electric bills on social media sites showing by the time the private corporations each add their claim to the bill, the amount more than doubles that of actual consumption.
The Turkish government pushes for privatizing and selling off of each and every public enterprise. However, it tries to hide the expected results of privatization as people end up getting fleeced by the private corporations that have landed these contracts by being in close supporting relations with the government higher ups. It could shortly be called wide spread corruption.
When the fees, service charges, taxes and other amounts for private corporations get tacked on to the bill, people find it harder if not impossible to pay the utility bills as unemployment hits record highs, astronomical food prices erode all income and rents increase to unreachable levels.
With the approaching elections only a couple of weeks away, the government still claims they have achieved an economic miracle and the rest of the world, including leading European countries, are “jealous of Turkey’s success.”
This claim to accomplishment led the opposition party lawmakers to officially ask the government to publish the figures of utilities shut down due to non-payment.
The ministry responded by disclosing that nearly 20 million, that is, a quarter of the entire population have had their utilities cut off because they had not paid their bill.
While feeding the private corporations, the utility bills have gone through the roof for the people. In one year, the price of electricity has gone up by 45%. Natural gas also saw an increase of 37% in Turkey. Each time the utility is cut, the customers are required to pay extra for turning it back on even when they pay the past amount. They also have to pay 2% late fees.
Sendika.Org News
