Water utilities have sharply increased tax debt: all allegedly due to tariffs.

Water utilities have debts of 1 billion hryvnias

The director of the 'Ukrvodokanalehology' association, Oleksandr Shkin, reported that water utilities owe about 1 billion hryvnias in VAT and special taxes.

'The tax arrears, referring to VAT and special taxes, of our enterprises amount to about 1 billion hryvnias,' Shkin stated in response to a question from Ukrinform.

In addition, water utilities remain debtors on World Bank loans totaling approximately 2 billion hryvnias. Meanwhile, the total income of all water and sewage enterprises is about 35 billion hryvnias.

According to Shkin, the current tariffs of water utilities only cover 70% of the service costs.