The Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, has registered a government draft law under which fines are set and accrued for delays in the payment of charges for housing and utility services.
Fines will be accrued for delays in payment starting from January 1, 2011, reads an explanatory note to the draft law on amendments to Article 2 of the law on the temporary ban on the imposition of fines on Ukrainian citizens for delays in payment for housing and utility services.
The authors of the draft law noted that total debit indebtedness of companies of the housing and utility sphere grew by UAH 2.6 billion (23.2%) over January-March 2010 and came to UAH 13.6 billion as of April 1, 2010.
According to the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, the debt of the public for housing and utilities services in March 1, 2010 was UAH 12.3 billion.
The significant debit indebtedness of companies prevents them from paying for received utilities services on time, pay tax obligations and arrears of wages, which, in turn, has an influence on credit indebtedness – which increased by UAH 2.5 bullion (22.1%) since the beginning of the year and totaled UAH 13.9 billion as of April 2010, the authors of the draft law noted.
