Palma. As of next Wednesday, Asitsa the company from whom Palma City Council leases its vehicles is to stop providing fuel to run the buses because it claims the company is owed 14 million euros.
Municipal sources confirmed yesterday that due to the dire financial circumstances in which the public bus company EMT now finds itself - it has debts of 30 million euros and a deficit of -9.5 million - it cannot pay Asitsa the amounts which are due.
From Wednesday onwards, the City Council is to obtain the fuel for EMT elsewhere, ensuring that the debt with Asitsa does not go on mounting. Meanwhile, Julio Martinez, the City Council's spokesman warned that as part of measures to get the Treasury out of the red, no further expenditure for maintenance and general running costs will be allowed to be financed from credit arrangements. He said that this also meant that the EMT bus company couldn't for the moment buy (or lease) any more buses. The Partido Popular Council has put up the price of a single bus ticket by 23 percent and has limited free rides to the under fives.
Martinez said a commitment has been made with Central Government to bring down public debt and that the City Council had to stick to it. He also said that even the 30 million euros allocated to finishing off the construction work on the Congress Palace couldn't be guaranteed.
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