SDP BiH Sarajevo demands withdrawal of decision on heating price increase

The Cantonal Committee of SDP BiH Sarajevo strongly condemns the latest increase in heating prices for citizens of Sarajevo Canton who use the district heating system of KJKP Toplane - Sarajevo. With this move, the Government of Sarajevo Canton most directly demonstrates how right the non-governmental sector was when it declared this Government the most incompetent in the history of this Canton, reports the Patria news agency.

The Government not only arrogantly demonstrated a lack of elementary sensitivity towards citizens who are living increasingly difficult lives, especially pensioners and socially vulnerable categories, but also once again showed with an arrogant decision how prone it is to political tricks and manipulations.

The Government attempts to justify its decision with the „long-standing unequal relationship of heating payments between citizens who use the services of Sarajevogas and those whose heating is provided by KJKP Toplane.”

The Cantonal Committee of SDP BiH Sarajevo reminds that the creator of such tariff policy over the past twenty years in Sarajevo Canton was precisely the same political party establishment, which now, after tens of millions of debt accumulated by Sarajevo Toplane, suddenly remembered that a number of citizens of Sarajevo Canton were privileged. That claim is problematic because the price of natural gas in Sarajevo is among the highest in Europe.

Moreover, the Government of Sarajevo Canton made a decision to increase heating prices retroactively, and that „for the most socially vulnerable fellow citizens, special funds will be planned in the budget for the next year that will reduce the financial impact on their household budgets.” This is yet another in a series of shameless lies and deceptions by the Government, which has lost itself in opening residential and luxury neighborhoods and shopping centers, and completely lost contact with reality and the concrete life problems of the citizens of Sarajevo Canton.

The argument that citizens should be happy that instead of 23 percent, heating is increasing by „only” 15 percent insults intelligence and common sense. The fact that at the same session a decision was made to reduce the price of natural gas by 12.6 percent speaks in favor of the fact that the price of heating should have, at the very least, remained the same, if it could not follow the reduction in the price of the basic energy source.

The Cantonal Committee of SDP BiH Sarajevo calls on the Government of Sarajevo Canton to withdraw this shameful decision, because after constant water reductions, announcements of school closures, leaking public transport vehicles, and the catastrophic security situation in the Canton, there is no need for yet another shameful move, aimed directly against the citizens of Sarajevo Canton, by reaching into their already empty pockets.