Kıb-Tek ‘is owed triple the amount of its debts’

ELECTRICITY authority KıbTek is staggering under a debt of some 165 million TL — but the amount it is owed is triple that figure, according to information released this week.

Kıb-Tek financial coordinator Hasan Başoğlu said the rocketing cost of fuel for the authority’s Teknecik power station — which is priced in foreign currency — allied to a lack of government subsidies for its operations, made consumer price hikes “inevitable”.

Mr Başoğlu said that up to September 6, Kıb-Tek bank debts amounted to 164.537 million TL — refuting a claim last week by the authority’s former head that it had swollen from 70 million TL to 240 million TL in the last six months — but that the amount owed to it was 475.038 million TL.

“If we can collect what we are owed, therefore, we can readily settle our debts,” he said.

Cyprus Today’s sister Turkish-language newspaper, Kıbrıs, also reported that new “smart meters” had been used to pay 95 per cent of all bills — 650,000TL — between January and mid-September, although private households still owe the authority more than 180 million TL — a figure trades unions claim demonstrates that the public cannot afford constant increases in the cost of electricity. Municipalities, however, top the league of debtors, owing more than 204 million TL for electricity. State subsidies for providing power to sectors such as agriculture, tourism and education, meanwhile, have built up a government debt to Kıb-Tek of some 31 million TL while other debtors include the military at 10 million TL, the TRNC’s Maronite and Greek Cypriot communities and the mixed village of Pile, which total some 48 million TL outstanding.

Mr Başoğlu said Kıb-Tek needed to invest a further 20 million TL to keep pace with growing electricity consumption but that it had been forced to halt such expenditure due to the TL collapse.

“Teknecik power station, which runs on fuel oil, will show defects next year and by 2020 will be unable to meet the needs of the country,” he said, stressing that other, cheaper forms of energy production should be considered, such as using gas, or activating long-awaited supplies by cable from Turkey.

Electricity workers’ union El-Sen warned last week that its members would consider going on strike if no action was taken to address Kıb-Tek debts.