PodcastNearly one million homes in Turkey failed to afford electric bills
Nearly one million households around Turkey had their electricity services cut off when they failed to pay their bills by the end of February, the Energy Ministry said. In addition, nearly 200,000 people were taken to court for their debts, meaning that nearly 2 percent of all of the country's households are unable to pay for electricity services.
Duvar English
Nearly one million households in Turkey lost their electricity service because they failed to pay their bills by the end of February, Energy Minister Fatih Dönmez said in response to a parliamentary question.
Some 59,238,582 electricity bills are sent out monthly, the minister said, and some 1.52 percent of those services had been shut down at the end of February 2020, the minister said.
Some 900,426 households had lost their services at the end of February, potentially leaving them without heating.
In addition, some 118,477 households were taken to court for failing to pay their bills.
The author of the parliamentary questions, main opposition deputy Deniz Yavuzyılmaz noted that farmers' electricity debts, a total of two billion liras, were not included in the numbers provided.
Ankara municipality suspends utility bills for April