Costas Bakogiannis on SKAI 100.3: Increases in energy costs will not be passed on to citizens

The increases faced by the Municipality of Athens, like all households and businesses, from the energy crisis are not going to be passed on to the citizens, we do not discuss this, clarified the mayor of Athens, Costas Bakogiannis, speaking to SKAI 100.3.

Mr. Bakoyannis stated that the accounts of the Municipality of Athens have also caught fire and the goal is not to pass on these increases to the citizens.

“We prefer to cut elsewhere than pass on the increases,” he said, adding that citizens are already under a lot of pressure and have reached their limits.

“The losses amount to two salaries, we have no right to underestimate that,” he said.

He also called on the government to implement its pre-election commitment and transfer the revenues from ENFIA to the local authorities.

Mr. Bakoyannis said in particular:

Vassilis Chiotis: First of all, I wonder how you are coping with this energy crisis because when the needs and costs increase, the energy in ordinary households I imagine what will happen in a municipality. Is this manageable for a municipality like the Municipality of Athens? Can you curb it or will it be passed on to the citizens?

Costas Bakogiannis: The bills we pay have also caught fire, as have the bills that go to households and businesses.
Obviously our number one goal is not to pass on these increases to the citizens and here I want to be very, very clear

Vassilis Chiotis: Because what you are saying is my goal means that it is not excluded to be passed on

Costas Bakogiannis: But that is exactly why I want it to be very clear, the increases are not going to be, the “no” in capital letters, capital letters to be passed on to the dots and hyphens.
It is something we do not discuss, we prefer to cut elsewhere but additional costs to our citizens are not going to exist, let alone now that we have all reached our limits because we are talking about very large losses, we are talking about losses that reach up to and two salaries and I think that being objectively a global problem does not mean that we have the right to underestimate it, it is a very wrong message we send to society

Vassilis Chiotis: Someone told me that municipal fees are paid only by citizens but not by companies located in the Municipality of Athens. Is this true?

Costas Bakogiannis: No it is not true, what the truth is is that during the pandemic we put our backs, we put our backs with a series of decisions. Indicatively to tell you that the Municipality of Athens unlocked tens of millions of euros, European resources which were absorbed by small and medium enterprises.
Let me tell you that all the companies that closed in the lock down did not pay anything to the Municipality of Athens, not only did we freeze but we deleted the fees and at the same time we are the only Municipality in the European Union that managed to upgrade in terms of his credit rating from Moody’s.

Having said all this, of course, I think you understand that the municipalities cannot and I know that I am talking about KEDE at the moment to pay for the broken ones of the pandemic.
We obviously understand the fiscal reality but the government needs to make brave decisions as it can always alternatively implement a pre-election commitment that is to transfer ENFIA to the local governmentin this case it will help a lot with the autonomy and independence of the municipalities.

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