An important innovation is being introduced when paying for housing and communal services: an expert explained the change

At the end of last week, the State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill on abolishing the identification of citizens when paying for housing and communal services up to 60 thousand rubles. MK found out from an expert how this innovation will affect the cost of housing and communal services and the procedure for their payment.

According to the bill adopted by deputies in the first reading, the maximum limit under which financial organizations may not carry out identification of citizens increases immediately by 4 times – from 15 thousand to 60 thousand rubles, if we are talking about payments for residential premises and utilities.

Why was it necessary to change the identification “bar” so dramatically? The authors of the bill in the explanatory note to it remind that the maximum payment amount, which does not require client identification, was introduced back in 2006. It concerned individual transactions, including payments for residential premises and utilities, and then amounted to 30 thousand rubles. In 2009, in the wake of the then financial crisis, a limit was set for all types of payment transactions, including housing and communal services – but already 15 thousand rubles.

“Even at that moment, certain payments for housing and communal services exceeded the maximum amount and required identification of the payer,” the explanatory note says.

Over the past decade and a half, a lot has changed: inflation has risen quite significantly, and the ruble exchange rate has changed noticeably… Well, the amount of fees for housing and communal services, accordingly, has also increased significantly. Thus, in 2023, the average monthly payment for housing and communal services was 3.3 times higher than in 2009. In some regions (Moscow and the Far North) it has reached the current limit. Because of this, at least 200 thousand payers across the country have to be identified per month.

In short, by now the average monthly payment for housing and communal services has actually reached, at least in some regions of the Russian Federation, the current limit of 15 thousand rubles. Consequently, personal identification has turned from an exclusive almost into a massive operation for banks, which need to carry it out in relation to almost half of all payers for utility services.

At the same time, “operations for accepting funds from individuals for housing and communal services, in principle, do not have the characteristics of transactions of a confusing or unusual nature, and have an obvious economic meaning and legitimate purpose,” the explanatory note says. In other words, why waste time, effort and money on identification that is essentially unnecessary for anyone? So the deputies decided to reasonably sharply raise the threshold for conducting it and, accordingly, reduce the volume of conducting it for banks.

The authors of the bill are confident that with the dynamics of growth in the cost of housing and communal services, the number of cases of invoicing for an amount exceeding 15 thousand rubles. over the course of a month it will continue to grow. In their opinion, the adoption of the bill will facilitate the procedure for accepting payments for a significant number of Russians and will simplify the acceptance of payment for the accumulated multi-month debt for housing and communal services.

According to Pavel Sklyanchuk, an expert in the field of housing and communal services, an analyst of the ONF’s thematic platform “Housing and Urban Environment”, the introduced changes concern not the amounts, but the process of paying for utility services. The expert draws attention to the fact that, according to the current anti-money laundering legislation, financial organizations engaged in accepting payments, including utility payments, are required to notify Rosfinmonitoring of suspicious transfers that may be carried out for illegal transactions. Identification of citizens making transfers serves these purposes. It is clear that it is unlikely that serious offenses can be associated with amounts of 15 thousand rubles, and therefore a sharp increase in this threshold seems quite logical and justified.

As for the interests of the population, according to Sklyanchuk, 95% of residents in the country pay an average of 5 to 7 thousand per month, significantly falling short even of the old norm – 15 thousand rubles. Of course, for luxury apartments the fee is 60 thousand, 100 thousand rubles per month and even more. There, the provision of public services includes: security, concierge, parking, lobby, video surveillance and much more. But no more than 5% of the country’s residents can afford all this…

According to the expert, raising the identification threshold will not in any way affect the total debt of the population for housing and communal services, which, according to Rosstat, at the beginning of this year exceeded 900 billion rubles. At the same time, the number of malicious debtors for housing and communal services (that is, those for whom there are enforcement proceedings for collection) was, according to the Federal Bailiff Service, about 8 million people.

Pavel Sklyanchuk believes that canceling identification up to 60 thousand rubles could even bring some benefit to residents. Payment centers reduce operating costs for payment acceptance services. And if their financial burden associated with the anti-money laundering law decreases, they can reduce their commission by a fraction of a percent. Which will ultimately affect the total payment amount downward.