Increased Gas Prises: Consumers Revert to Coal

Following the last price increase in November, NGOs, political parties and professional associations demonstrated for a reduction in the price.

Possible reduction

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Hilmi Güler recently announced a possible reduction in the natural gas price at the end of the month.

The Chamber of Mechanical Engineers (MMO) has said that the price increases are a result of a faulty energy policy.

Higher costs, colder homes

Landscape gardener Zeliş Deniz complains: “The last bill was 375 TL (around 174 Euros). Ever since the rise in prices, no bill is under 350 TL, but we don’t get warm.”

Product manager Sencer Piyancı said that there was an average difference of 100 TL (around 46 Euros) in bills before and after November: “Paying 800 TL rent as well as a 400 TL heating bill stretches our budget.”He added, “Because of the price rise I heat less and wear more clothes at home. Heating one’s home has become very expensive.”

Günseli Akar works for a private company. She pays 1,000 TL rent and 250 TL heating costs. Compared to the last months, she pays 100 TL more in heating bills.

Local elections coming up

Project worker Cenk Soyer says that despite being very careful with the heating and turning it off when he is not at home, the bills are never under 200 TL. Despite that expenditure, the home is not warm. He hopes that the government will feel the consequences in the local elections.

Ogün Atalay Canay says that all of his friends are complaining about high heating bills. He asks ironically how high the Prime Minister’s natural gas bill is – after all, he said that the crisis would not affect Turkey.

Cahide Güzel’s December-January bill came to 645 TL (around 300 TL). “There are two of us, and when we go out to work we turn the heating to the lowest level. Despite this, the bill was as high as our rent.” She has decided to dress warmly, be prepared to be cold and not use natural gas.

Derya Erdem is an assistant. Her life has become more difficult with the rise in the price of natural gas, as well as of water and electricity. She complains that her salary has not risen.

Mehmet Güleryüz said that his last bill was 450 TL, compared to 200 TL last year. Because they had a baby at home, he said they could not turn the heating down. Güleryüz said that most of his salary went on paying the rent and the heating bill.

Ankara: Back to coal

In Ankara, finance coordinator İsmail Alacaoğlu says that families living on the minimum wage (527 TL) spent most of it on their natural gas bills or were forced to return to heating with coal stoves: ,“The city has gone back 10 years. When you go out at night, the streets smell of coal and the air is thick with smoke. (BÇ/AG)