Increases even up to 9% depending on the quantity of undifferentiated awarded in past years. The sting it concerns the Departmentthe tariff on waste of the Salento municipalitiesand will arrive in the next few months through the bills that the municipal administrations will send to the homes of private individuals and to the addresses of commercial companies for advance payments and the balance.
A blow to the pockets of citizens that is the direct consequence of the debt of almost 16 million euros in total that the mayors have contracted towards Progetto Ambiente in the various locations of the disposal plants: in detail, it is 2 million euros for the “Lecce 3” factory in Poggiardo, selection and biostabilization line, 3 million euros for the “Lecce 2” in Ugento and 11 million and 600 thousand euros for those municipalities that have used the Cavallino facility.
The timetable of the Municipalities
The economic and financial plans have been sent in recent weeks to Ager, the regional waste agency, which is currently validating the documents. Once received back, the municipalities will go to the various municipal councils by July 20, a deadline extended by the Senate Budget Commission in an amendment to the Cohesion Decree, and then send the famous bills aggravated by previous and current costs.
The question of price increases arose after the ruling of the Council of State on the appeal brought by the operators against Arera, the Authority that regulates gas, electricity and waste, on the system of so-called “minimum systems”, i.e. the list of those indispensable systems which, according to national indications, should have regulated the tariffs, so that the amount per tonne of waste was not established by the market but arrived from a path that took into account, in particular, the social utility of the service, thus obtaining a controlled price.
Puglia, in total, has accrued a debt of approximately 60 million euros, also due to the use of the plants in Conversano, Manfredonia and Massafra, while, as mentioned, the Salento administrations have accumulated just over 16 million euros that will inevitably have to be divided based on the conferments and regarding the tariffs for 2022 and 2023: the percentage variation was 41.8% for 2022 and 11.6% for 2023: with a sidereal increase in costs as demonstrated by what is due, for example, for the conferment in Cavallino which for 2022 goes from 165.03 euros per ton to 215.85 euros and for 2023 from 195.44 euros/ton to 254.13 euros/ton. Fortunately, among the various hypotheses of Tari increase, and by virtue of a provision of Arera, the maximum increase cannot be more than a percentage of approximately 9%. Therefore, the mayors have autonomously decided to spread the amount of the arrears and the amounts of 2024, over several years, so as not to burden the citizen with large sums. However, the matter to be discussed with the manager is different, who will have to be paid in full, if there is no negotiation.
«The owner of the plants is available to meet the municipalities with a deferment of the debt – explains the lawyer Luigi Quinto who looks after the interests of Progetto Ambiente – after having thought about the methods. To date we have not yet received any proposals. Otherwise the arrears and interest will be paid as soon as possible.”
At stake is also an appeal to the TAR of Bari, which in recent weeks rejected the precautionary suspension, deferring everything to the judgment on the merits next November. Other administrations have instead presented an appeal to the President of the Republic in the hope of finding a way to block the spending commitments that will be passed on to citizens. In the meantime, the Province of Lecce is also moving on the issue: after the meetings of the past few months with the presidents of the Aro, wanted by the president Stefano Minerva and coordinated by the delegated councilor Fabio Tarantino, another table is planned in the coming days precisely to develop a common strategy. The idea is always to promote those, among the administrations, who operate in a virtuous manner, with high numbers of separate waste collection and, on a broader scale, to agree to start a dialogue for the creation of a selection plant in the province of Lecce to lower disposal costs.
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