The financial situation of Albanian families seems to have worsened during the first 4 months of the year, reflecting this with an increase in arrears owed by the latter to energy companies.
The official data of the sector published by the Energy Regulatory Authority underline that the debts of this category increased by about 1 million euros compared to the end of last year. Specifically, the liability at the end of 2022 was ALL 45.2 billion, while at the end of April it was ALL 45.3 billion (around EUR 400 million).
The category of family members is the one that has a regular tendency to pay and reduce the debt to the Electricity Distribution Operator, even though it is actually the largest holder of this debt from the four listed categories. For the last time, family members increased their energy obligations during 2020, the year when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, which paralyzed everyone's life globally, bringing many consequences, including financial ones, in Albanian families.
Another category that has increased debts is that of non-budgetary institutions, which are companies such as water supply companies, hospitals, and lighting companies. In this group, the debt from ALL 18.18 billion at the end of December reached the value of ALL 18.56 billion with an increase of 2.5 percent.
Meanwhile, the debt from individuals or businesses has suffered a slight decrease compared to the end of last year. At the end of April, this total debt was 11.6 billion ALL or 0.6 percent less than at the end of last year.
Debt from budgetary institutions has also decreased, which in total at the end of the 4th month of this year was 4.6 billion ALL or with a decrease of 2.1 percent compared to the end of 2022.
In total, according to data made public by ERE, the outstanding debt to OSHEE from the four groups has a cumulative value of 703 million euros.
This obligation has increased in relation to the end of 2022 when the total arrears value was 700 million euros or with an increase of about 0.4 percent of the total.
Despite the efforts to reduce the total amount of debts towards the public distribution company, where various relief schemes have been applied for years, this obligation has been increasing, reaching at the end of April the highest value ever according to official figures.