In the headline of one of our newspapers, under the headline of "Confidential support to the citizen", the following was briefly stated:
"The state, which covers 80 percent of the gas bill and half of the electricity, has alleviated the burden on the citizens. The rapidly increasing energy prices in the international markets were not reflected in the natural gas used in the residences. Energy Minister Fatih Dönmez: If the citizen used 400 lira of gas, they pay 100 liras of it. The remaining 300 liras are covered by the state. In other words, almost 80 percent of the gas was undertaken by the state."
Honestly, I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said I wasn't surprised by this news. Because, according to this statement, my gas bill was 228 TL last month. According to the description, this invoice was one-fifth of what I used. So, if the state hadn't paid most of it, the amount I had to pay would have exceeded a thousand liras, no matter how you look at it. If a thousand lira bill had been sent to a heating system of 60 square meters with only three honeycombs, it would not have been possible to pay this price. Let me just say that I am not saying this for myself. Because almost all of my neighbors around me are low-income people. If the state pays 800 lira of a 1,000 lira bill, it should be thanked. However, how long the state can withstand this payment should also be considered in this aspect of the business. Because if the state is going to go into an economic bottleneck again after a while, it means that we will experience the trouble that will arise together as a nation.
I am not stating all this as an admission that what the Minister has said is not true. The only thing I'm wondering is whether the government will not use these money, which it pays to help the citizens, for the possible price reductions in the foreign exchange and then the price drops in the international markets, and whether it means that the income from this will be counted towards the payments it has made. Because such an application is mentioned in fuel prices. In other words, it is stated that the price decreases experienced in fuel prices due to the decline of the dollar are not reflected on the pump, the loss of income experienced in return for the discount provided to the consumer by not taking the taxes on the fuel prices for a while, and the price decreases in the fuel prices have not been reflected in the pump prices for a while, and the state is trying to compensate for the loss inflicted.
When this is the case, one cannot help but ask if the electricity and gas prices in the residences are not reflected to the users by 80%, whether it will be a continuation of the application I tried to explain above.
The second aspect of the matter is that if the government reflects a very small portion of the gas and electricity costs used to protect the citizens on the invoice, there should be no hiding place. On top of that, since the state did not want to announce the opportunity it provided to the citizens, why are they trying to be put in the eyes of people now? Because there is nothing to hide about the work done. If the state and the nation will face the difficulties and share joys hand in hand, then it was not intended to be an application that was made, then why was it necessary to announce it now?
Moreover, the announcement of such practices before they started would have contributed to the state-nation cohesion. Because of the divisive style that dominates the language of politics, people are getting more and more nervous. When the ups and downs in the economy are added to this, the mental health of the society goes to the point of deterioration.
I think this headline was specially chosen. Because according to our belief, it is beneficial for the left hand not to see what the right hand is doing. If the support given to the citizens was kept secret in accordance with this understanding, what could be the reason for the disclosure of this secrecy by the minister today?