CET Brasov Sells 7 Mio RON In Land To Pay Gas Bills

Two months after CET Brasov, the centralized heating company of the City of Brasov, decided to suspend the hot water supply to individual consumers, the residents of Brasov barely paid 10% of the largely overdue debt that eventually caused them to take cold showers. "In the past two months, we only managed to pay 3.2 million RON to our gas supplier, Gaz de France Suez Energy Romania. Only 1.2 million RON from that amount was collected from individual consumers, which means only 10% of the initial debt of 12 million RON. The rest of the money came as a subsidy from the Local Council, who gave us 2 million RON," said Florin Cutitei, the CEO of CET Brasov.

He added that the Ministry of Economy had not been able to pay the full subsidy as they did not have the money, either. "Practically, they owe us 3 million RON, but they only added us to the Government decision with 1.2 million RON. However, they cannot even pay the 1.2 million RON, because they do not have the money," the CEO of CET Brasov further explained the situation.

Under the circumstances, the company is planning to sell three plots of land, which have been valuated at a total of approximately 7 million RON. "Three potential bidders have already bought the tender book," Cutitei said. The company is also awaiting the end of the court holidays to start new lawsuits against bad debtors. Roughly 50 cases have been already prepared.

In the meantime, many residents of Brasov have decided to leave the centralized heating system and install their own gas-powered heating units. Approximately 1,600 households have made this decision since the beginning of this summer, shivering at the prospect of spending winter without heating or hot water.

Approximately 20,000 apartments in Brasov have been disconnected from the hot water supply since 25 June as CET Brasov stopped receiving any gas from the gas supplier, Gaz de France Suez Energy Romania, because of largely overdue bills. Asked for their estimation about what the next steps may be, representatives of CET Brasov said heating and hot water supply would not be resumed before all household customers paid their overdue bills in the amount of some 12 million RON. However, the 12 million RON receivable is five times smaller than CET Brasov"s 60 million RON debt to Gaz de France.