They cut off electricity to 41 thousand poor people

of poverty Debt-related power outages, one of the most important indicators, did not stop even during the election period, when good news was widely distributed. The government, which postponed sanctions, taxes and increases until after the presidential and parliamentary elections in May, showed no mercy to the poor who could not pay their electricity debt.

THERE IS NO NUMBER, THERE IS RELATIONSHIP

According to data from the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, in the first 6 months of this year, prior to the electoral period, the electricity supply was cut off to 41,064 poor citizens due to their debts. The power supply was also cut off to 26,000 merchants and 2,700 farmers engaged in agricultural irrigation due to debts. The Ministry announced the figures indirectly to hide the number of poor people whose power supply was cut off.

CHP Ankara MP Aliye Timisi Ersever asked the Ministry of Energy with a motion about the number of subscribers whose electricity was cut off in the last 3 years because they could not pay their debts. In his response, the Ministry shared information about the tariffs of subscribers whose power was cut off due to their debts, instead of giving the direct number. When listing each type of subscriber, the ministry gave “the ratio between the number of subscribers whose electricity was cut off due to debt and the total number of subscribers”, but did not mention the number of subscribers.

CHP’s Ersever, who calculated the number of subscribers from official documents, made a list of subscribers whose power was cut off in the last two and a half years. According to the calculations in question, it was determined that 315 thousand homes were cut in 2021, 170 thousand in 2022 and 41 thousand homes in the first 6 months of this year.

70 million TL for opening and closing

CHP Ankara MP Aliye Timisi Ersever said she asked the Energy Ministry a simple question, but received a riddle-like answer in return. Ersever said: “No matter how much it is hidden, the bitter truth eventually comes to light. “People live this situation every day,” she said. CHP’s Ersever added that citizens who had their power cut off and then reconnected paid 70 million lira to power companies in 2022 alone, and that the cut-off and connection fee increased twice in one year.