“The threat of power shutoffs for unpaid bills improves financial discipline”, – Yasno CEO

Disconnecting electricity for debts during wartime is normal because it encourages financial discipline.

This said Serhii Kovalenko, CEO of the electricity supplier Yasno, in an interview with Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation.

According to him, after the moratorium on disconnecting consumers from utilities was lifted, the population’s payment rate increased significantly.

“If you remember, at the beginning of the war for some time it was not allowed to disconnect the public for debts. But later—they brought this rule back, and it’s already been two years—and the level of payments rose dramatically. Of course, the goal isn’t simply to disconnect people. But the very fact that you can be disconnected for debts slightly improves and stimulates financial discipline. So in my view, it’s a normal thing,” Kovalenko said.

Meanwhile, as the journalist noted, by spring the debt of Kyiv residents alone totaled 1.2 billion hryvnias (€24.2 million). According to Kovalenko, in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions the public’s electricity debt stands at 1 billion hryvnias. At the same time, the average monthly electricity bill is 700–800 hryvnias (€14–16).

As a reminder, in August 2022 Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law imposing a moratorium on raising utility tariffs. The moratorium was introduced for the period of martial law and for six months after its cancellation.