Политика

The mayor of the municipality, Dr. Tsvetan Dafov, announced that at the forthcoming February session of the Municipal Council, he will propose a garbage fee to be reduced.
The amount of the garbage fee for the municipality of Velingrad was set at a session in the last days of December 2001. Then the councilors accepted the mayor's proposal for the population fee garbage to remain the same as in 2000 - 4.5 permilla on the tax assessment of buildings. Promiliya remained the same, but the amount of the fee garbage increased significantly, because in the meantime the government decided to increase tax estimates by 60-100% on average. This was not sufficiently tailored by both the municipal administration and the councillors. One of the reasons - the increase in tax assessments also became a fact in the last days of December 2001.

In January, Veligrad citizens received reports of the new amount of the building tax due and the garbage fee for 2002. For many, the shock was enormous. In the editorial office, a pensioner showed his charged garbage fee for 286 leva. It turned out to be no exception: people were calling, surprised that they owed more money for a garbage charge than for a property tax. Others were unhappy with the amount of money they couldn't afford to pay.

Last week, the municipal administration began to make calculations by how much and in what way to reduce the bills for garbage fee. The task is difficult, because at the same time money must be guaranteed for the cleanliness of the city, and at the same time to think about the thin pocket of the citizens of Veligrad. The exact estimates will be presented this week, when a meeting of the Municipal Council's operational bureau will be held on February 5.
We sought the opinion of the Chairman of the Committee on Economy at the Municipal Council Georgi Mihaylov whether the municipal councilors have the attitude to support the reduction of the garbage fee. Mr. Mihailov announced that he personally is ready to plead for this in the Committee on Economy and before the local parliament. According to him, the councillors voted on the bills for a garbage fee without knowing how much the tax assessments are jumping by. If the garbage fee is reduced, the municipal clean-up firm Stroycom will have to look for its own reserves to reduce costs, the chairman of the economic committee believes.
The situation around the cleaning of the city may also change because of the public procurement announced by the municipality for the activities of cleanliness, snow removal, landscaping, etc. If the new procedure leads to the creation of competition, the calculations how much to allocate the municipal treasury for the cleanliness activities will undoubtedly undergo changes.
The decision whether and by how much to reduce the garbage fee will become clear after the meeting of the Municipal Council in mid-February. The Tax Office - Velingrad announced that they will comment on the possible changes in the amount of the garbage fee only after they become a fact.
Tempo