An unexpected twist: the biggest debtors for utilities are the most solvent
17 January 2024 13:26
The highest level of utility arrears in Kyiv is observed in Pechersk, an area traditionally considered one of the most “major” districts of the capital. This was stated in an interview with Ukrainian Radio by Oleksandr Sergienko, director of the analytical and research centre “City Institute”, according to 
.
“Talks that the ‘rich owe’ are true in Pechersk. It turns out that Pechersk in Kyiv is the biggest debtor. People just bought apartments but don’t live there. For them, it’s easy to make a debt for a year and then come and pay for two years in advance,”
– the analyst emphasised.
In general, he said, it is not possible to speak unequivocally about the growth of utility debt during a full-scale war, as it is almost impossible to make detailed and accurate calculations.
“There was a government resolution back in 2022, about a month after the start of the great war, which exempted people under occupation from all payments. Although they received payments because that’s how the system works, the computer programme needs to be rewritten. As for the huge increase in debt, such rumours appear in the information space from time to time. However, the official debt figure is only issued by the State Statistics Service, which is now closed because it is extremely difficult to collect information, and impossible to collect it in the occupied or frontline territories. Therefore, we can only make assumptions or forecasts about the growth of debt,”
– the expert believes.
The analyst questions some of the calculations according to which the payment arrears have increased dramatically in recent years.
“First of all, we need to determine what period of time the debt was formed? As of the end of 2021, the total debt of the entire population for all utilities was between UAH 73 and 82 billion. This is about three monthly payments. There are subtleties there, this debt is dynamic, for example, this month you owe me and I paid, and the next month it’s the other way round. Over all the years I have been observing, based on statistics, the level of payments by the population is 94-96%. That is, people actually pay regularly,”
– said Oleksandr Sergienko.
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