The Secretary General of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, Bojan Kostres, asked the competent state authorities why they allow foreign companies that have invested in Serbia, especially those from China, to accumulate debts for consumed electricity.
“It is a tragic fact that the state does not take into account its economic interests and allows a huge accumulation of debts of companies coming from much richer countries,” Kostres wrote in a statement.
Pointing out that many foreign companies were given great benefits at the same time in order to invest in Serbia and thus help the state and its citizens, Kostres asked if non-payment of electricity is one of the types of assistance.
He reminded that the largest debtor for unpaid electricity, Zelezara Smederevo, is owned by the Chinese company Hesteel Group with a debt of almost 39.1 million euros, and that the Chinese company in Serbia Zijin Bor Coper, which owes 7.2 million euros, is also at the very top.
EPS informed the public that the debt of the 20 largest debtors amounts to more than 159 million euros, which, Kostres warns, is approximately the amount of the annual budgets of all cities and municipalities in Banat.
“LSV expects an urgent reaction from the Electric Power Industry of Serbia, but also from the competent state authorities. We expect that the list of the 20 biggest debtors on the electricity bill will not remain just a dead letter on paper and that the debt will be paid,” Kostres said.
He reminded that the authorities in the Electric Power Industry of Serbia regularly call on the citizens to pay their bills and even more regularly exclude debtors, regardless of the fact that these are much smaller amounts in relation to the debts of certain companies.
“If we are an economically weak state, it is certain that we are not a colony that someone will suck up, dry up and eventually throw away,” Kostres concluded, N1 reports.
