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1 hour All water and sewer companies that have submitted applications in time have already received decisions – convince Polish water representatives
Expected by some local governments and experts a wave from increases due to the reform of water law and the appointment of the government regulator for the moment – only the foam is sought by skeptics. At least this is the result of recent data presented by Polish waters reached by "DGP".
– All water and sanitation companies that have submitted applications in time have already received decisions – convince Polish water representatives. And they add that in more than 90 percent. cases are positive decisions, accepting rates submitted by local governments.
In other words, the vast majority of municipal enterprises – despite initial problems – have reached a government agreement with the government regulator on water prices and disposal fees. waste. This is also demonstrated by a small number of calls. – From May, about 80 of us received them – explains Joanna Kopczyńska, Deputy Chief of Polish Waters.
Steady situation
As learned the DGP, the Polish waters of March 12 – when it exceeded the legal deadline for submitting applications – approved nearly 2,000 documents. In nearly 2 thousand of them, rates were unchanged or indexed, that is, increased by inflation indicators. In practice, this means that they will not increase above 3%. – says Sergey Kieruzel, spokesman for Polish waters.
On the other extreme, there are about 130 requests, in which local governments have predicted increases, and Polish waters suited them, recognizing that the increase in costs was justified.
– First, the capital expenditure committed or reduced for the coming years, that is to say the expansion of the network, the modernization of l & 39; equipment or the linking of new users, are favorable. Secondly, the increases result from water purchases, because not all companies extract them themselves, they only buy from other entities – explains Kieruzel.
All Conclusions
This does not mean, however, that residents of all municipalities in Poland can already be calm on future bills. There is a question mark on the fate of about 480 applications, which are always analyzed by employees of regional boards.
The reasons for the delays associated with them are essentially two. First and foremost, as the Polish water representatives pointed out, many requests were sent to them after the deadline. In extreme cases, the last documents were sent in June, almost three months after the deadline. This, in turn, affects the pace of the procedure, which must follow the regulations, by providing for precise deadlines for correspondence between the regulator – a water and sewer company or a municipality.
Here is another problem revealed. According to the representatives of Polish waters, many of the requests that were sent to them were full of errors and inaccuracies in the accounts.
– Key elements were missing at times, and the figures in the justifications did not coincide with the figures in the tables – we hear RZGW employees asking for anonymity.
They add that, in extreme cases, the entire tariff application – as well as the documentation, calculations and justifications, which were held by several binders in the larger entities – could fit on one page.
And this prolonged the procedure, because it was necessary to ask such an office to complete the application. And often, many times – we hear.
Local government officials argue that the quality of the documents prepared by them was also influenced by the changes to the executive bylaw, which set out detailed rules for calculating rates. It was published as it was on the home stretch because a dozen days before the deadline required to submit a loan application – they say. They also point out that because of the water law change for the first time, they had to set rates not for a year and three years before.
There was a storm
The current price compromise is one thing. Without a storm, however, this did not happen. Especially that the vast majority of municipalities counted first of all more than what had finally been established after longer struggles with the regional water management boards. Everything has been broken by the fact that the costs included in the calculations are justified. If this is the case, municipalities could raise prices so that businesses do not operate in the red.
As early as 11 April, Joanna Kopczyńska, presenting the first information on the status of work on tariff applications, indicated that price increases had been proposed in 1887 in the tariff applications; in 448 the prices have not changed; and at 173 the prices are lower than currently in force.
Now, however, it seems like a relative compromise has been reached. However, the last calls that have been submitted by more than 80 entities are still pending. What situations are we talking about? This is the case when the municipal companies did not prepare other tariff applications and did not submit any other calculations than those that were questioned by the boards. regional water bodies. In this situation, when the "negotiations" between the companies and RZGW did not yield results and compromise, the cases were directed to the second instance, namely the National Board of Water Management. (Polish waters). Interestingly, more than a dozen appeals were presented by local government officials, not by municipal business leaders.
When will we have a complete picture of the situation? We hear that all applications, including the review of recent appeals, should be approved in the fall. Soon, however, some of the information on tariffs in Poland should be sent to the Ministry of Inland Navigation and the Maritime Economy. The director of the ministry, Marek Grobarczyk, stressed that the global information on water prices would be a valuable source of information for those who are currently working on another – the third – amendment to the law on water.
2018-07-17, Jakub Pawłowski
