industryterm:unpaid electricity bills

Palestinians also to blame for Gaza electricity crisis
Don’t give a pass to the two rival Palestinian leaderships, who cynically clash with each other at the expense of their people in the Gaza Strip

Amira Hass Jun 26, 2017 1
read more: ▻http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-1.797751

We must discuss the responsibility of the two Palestinian “governments” for leaving the Gaza Strip in the dark. This article is not meant to absolve Israel of responsibility for the crisis and the chain of catastrophic, horrific disasters it is now creating and will create in the future. Israel is the de facto ruler in the Strip. The siege Israel is imposing on Gaza has led to unprecedented levels of poverty in the coastal enclave. Israel bombed and destroyed the power plant’s transformers and fuel tanks, and it restricts the entry of construction and other raw materials that are required for the speedy rehabilitation and repair of the electricity infrastructure, including the power station.
But we must not absolve the two rival Palestinian leaderships, who are clashing with each other cynically and brutally, at the expense of their people in Gaza. In this repulsive spat, electricity is a particularly complex issue. Here are some of the main problems:
Collection of accounts: Gaza owes the Palestinian Finance Ministry in Ramallah a fortune for unpaid electricity bills. The Israeli siege has left most Gazan residents impoverished, with about 80 percent of them dependent on aid. Many simply cannot pay. But there are others who jump on the bandwagon and don’t pay: official (Hamas) institutions; municipalities; mosques; and probably some businesses that have survived the siege.
Ramallah is not the rich uncle that can absorb everything. The restrictions on movement and development imposed by Israel on the West Bank greatly constrict the economy there. When they want to, the Hamas authorities know full well how to collect multiple taxes from their residents. Why aren’t they trying harder to collect money for electricity, which has to be transferred to the treasury in Ramallah?
Taxation: The Palestinian Authority is supposed to transfer the diesel fuel needed to operate the private power plant in Gaza, but it doesn’t grant a full tax exemption on the fuel, as it previously promised. Gazans say the poverty there justifies a full tax exemption. The Hamas authorities claim the revenues go to the treasury in Ramallah.

Erdoğan plays politics with illegal electricity usage
▻http://www.todayszaman.com/business_erdogan-plays-politics-with-illegal-electricity-usage_396347.h

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appears to have been manipulating the much-debated problem of illegal electricity usage in the eastern part of Turkey, a controversial issue frequently on the public agenda after video recordings revealed clandestine ties between distribution companies and the government in 2014.

In a regular meeting with muhtars (headmen) at the presidential palace on Wednesday, Erdoğan said the government has been expending diligent efforts to overcome security problems in the eastern provinces; however, it suffers financial losses from illegal electricity usage, a common headache for distribution companies in the region.

There are nearly 37 million subscribers registered with energy companies in Turkey paying approximately TL 70 billion in electricity bills ?????, of which an amount of between TL 5 million and TL 6 million each year is surcharged from those who pay their bills regularly. Yet the illegal usage rate in some areas is much higher than in others.

Abdullah Tivnikli, a businessman known for his close ties to Erdoğan, said early in January that he wants to exit his partnership with Dicle Electricity Distribution (DEDAŞ) — which serves 1.5 million subscribers in the Southeast — in order to avoid further losses due to widespread illegal use of electricity in the area in which the company operates. After the revelation of massive corruption investigations late in 2013, Tivnikli was allegedly heard asking then-Deputy Undersecretary in the Prime Ministry İbrahim Kalın for reimbursement from the government for subscribers’ unpaid electricity bills in a voice recording leaked on YouTube in April 2014.

Erdoğan seems to have aimed at relieving Tivnikli’s concerns as he addressed unpaid electricity bills immediately after his talk about security woes.

“They [Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)] dig up the streets, lay mines along the roads and threaten people, set fire to their automobiles and bar highway and dam construction [in the eastern provinces]. Can you imagine? What will these reservoirs be for? Collecting water to irrigate dry areas… They generate electricity, if they are hydroelectric power plants. [When the PKK prevents dam construction] the burden will be on the government, and they will say ‘the state does not provide electricity for us.’ They are the ones who cut the electricity supply. The price of the electricity, unfortunately, is not paid as you may probably know,” Erdoğan said.

According to another voice recording leaked on Twitter, also in April of last year, Kalın told Tivnikli that the prime minister [Erdoğan at the time] was in favor of the idea of the state paying the company for illegally consumed electricity, given that the rate of unpaid electricity bills in the Southeast was as high as 60-70 percent

#Electricité #privatisation #PKK

Pro-Erdoğan businessman asks to exit major energy project
▻http://www.todayszaman.com/business_pro-erdogan-businessman-asks-to-exit-major-energy-project_3690

One of the partners of an electricity distribution company which serves 1.5 million subscribers in the Southeast on Tuesday asked the government to allow his firm to leave the partnership, lamenting large-scale illegal use of electricity in the region.

Abdullah Tivnikli, a businessman known for his close ties to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Tuesday that he wants to exit his partnership with Dicle Electricity Distribution (DEDAŞ) in order to avoid further losses due to widespread illegal use of electricity in the area the company operates in. “I have to leave this partnership or we will be forced to have blackouts in the region to compensate for our losses,” Tivnikli was quoted as saying by Fox TV Turkey.

The İşkaya-Doğu Consortium, in which Tivnikli is a partner, won a tender for electricity distribution in the southeastern region with an offer of $387 million in 2013. DEDAŞ supplies electricity to the southeastern provinces of Batman, Diyarbakır, Mardin, Siirt, Şanlıurfa and Şırnak, where 75 percent of the population uses electricity illegally according to local sources. Tivnikli said his financial losses due to illegal usage amounted to TL 400 million a year. Around 350,000 subscribers in the region DEDAŞ covers fail to pay their electricity bills while 91,000 others pay less than TL 5 a month, Tivnikli told Fox TV.

The methods used by Tivnikli to compensate for losses sustained by the partnership have been a matter of discussion recently.

A suspect in a corruption probe that was made public in December 2013, Tivnikli was allegedly heard asking then-deputy undersecretary in the Prime Ministry İbrahim Kalın for reimbursement from the government for subscribers’ unpaid electricity bills, in a voice recording leaked on YouTube in April 2014. According to another voice recording leaked on Twitter, also in April of last year, Kalın told Tivnikli that the prime minister was in favor of the idea of the state paying the company for illegally consumed electricity, given that the rate of unpaid electricity bills in the Southeast was as high as 60-70 percent.

Tivnikli earlier last year admitted to having spoken to Kalın to get his help regarding the unpaid electricity bills. He also admitted to having paid school fees for Kalın’s daughter. Kalın is currently employed as Erdoğan’s spokesman.

#Electricité #Privatisation #Corruption #Kurdes