"Kharkiv does not pay debts of 20 billion, so it maintains free zoo and transport," - Filatov. VIDEO
The mayor of Dnipro, Boris Filatov, expressed the view that it is not entirely accurate to compare Dnipro with Kharkiv, as the financial resources of these cities differ significantly.
He made this statement in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda, reports Censor.NET.
The financial conditions of the cities differ
According to him, he would not wish to reduce everything to a direct competition between the cities, but acknowledged that one could compare the budgets and the volume of aid provided by Kharkiv and Dnipro. At the same time, Filatov emphasised: these figures differ significantly, and it is impossible to compare them directly.
"If you compare the aid provided by Kharkiv and that provided by Dnipro, they cannot be compared. These are completely different figures. We remember the statement by the 'Charter' group regarding aid. I’ll tell you, we also allocated funds to 'Charter' and also provided a subsidy. This year," Filatov emphasised.
Kharkiv’s debts
Secondly, according to him, Kharkiv has a heating debt of over 15 billion hryvnias. In addition, there is a water debt of over 3 billion hryvnias and an electricity debt of around 2 billion hryvnias. Figures as of 1 February this year.
"That’s 20 billion. We do not have such debts. If the state allows me not to pay the debts of our local authority – effectively selling the authority short by 20 billion – then believe me, we will be able to help much more. This is the kind of situation where people ask me, ‘Why isn’t your transport free?’, and I say: it cannot be free, because that is an illusion. Anything that is free is funded by taxpayers’ money, so let’s not talk about Kharkiv, because if I were given such preferential treatment not to pay debts, we would also have made the zoo free or the ice rink," he added.
