The president of the PS / Faro described this Tuesday as “looting” the increase in the 2023 rate for water, sanitation and waste in the municipality and called for its “total reversal”, considering that there is “a lot of room for maneuver”. ” to find another solution.
The tariff update was reflected in the invoices that began to reach citizens in March, referring to the January billing, with the Faro water and waste management company (Fagar), attributing the increase to the determinations of the Water Regulatory Entity and Waste (ERSAR) and the increase in prices by service providers.
However, the leader of the PS/Faro, Adérito Silva, affirmed that there was “a lot of room for maneuver to find a different solution to this one”, arguing that in an opinion issued by ERSAR on Fagar’s proposal to increase the tariff, the The entity itself recommends the reduction of operating costs.
“It doesn’t look like anything He says that the rate must be changed, quite the opposite, he says that careful management must be carried outreducing costs and gaining efficiency”, he said, noting that, on average, the increases are around 25%, although it depends on each case and there are much higher increases.
According to the ERSAR opinion, dated December 13, 2023 and distributed by the PS to journalists, the entity indicates that the tariff proposal “leads to excessive coverage of expenses in the water sanitation service”, for which ” an equation must be considered “.revision of the tariff in the sense of its reduction”.
aderito silva considered “inadmissible” that in a situation of pandemic, war and inflation “the interests of the population are not defended”and added that an extraordinary Municipal Assembly was requested to deal with the issue, now waiting for the date to be set.
The leader of the socialist municipality also promised to “mobilize or frame a general mobilization in the municipality” to reverse the situation, considering that the municipality, which owns 51% of Fagar, cannot be separated from the increase, when it had done so in December approved. a proposal for a global increase of 06%.
At the press conference, the socialist Ana Passos, deputy of the Municipal Assembly, said that, Compared to the 2022 rate, there were increases of more than 100% and even 200%.
Regarding domestic consumption, the fixed rate for sanitation increased by 114% and in the first tranche of the waste management service by 106%.
In the non-domestic rate, the increases are even greater: 148% in the fixed rate of the sanitation service, 158% in waste management and over 200% in the variable rate of the second floor of sanitation, he illustrated.
Questioned by Lusa last week about the reason for the increase, Fagar affirmed that the rate results from the applicability of the ERSAR rules, “with the attribution of the increase in charges to a significant part of the users, which until now has not happened.” complying with the recommendations of the regulator.
According to Fagar, in addition to the increase in prices charged by service providers, last year “an excessive increase in the cost of delivering waste to the managing entity at a high price (Algar), passing the value per ton from 39.27 to 68.27 euros, with a direct negative impact on the company’s accounts of approximately one million euros”.
“We already know that this year there will be a new rise in the value of the ton to 80.91 euros, with an estimated negative impact of half a million euros, which will condition a new rate correction,” the municipal company warned.
Source: Observadora
