Benefits for paying utility bills will be introduced for the elite, tariffs will be raised for everyone

How will our payments change?

The Ministry of Construction of Russia is determined to increase the number of beneficiaries for payment of housing and communal services. In particular, he intends to reduce the maximum share of the cost of paying for communal services to certain categories of citizens. As reported in the media, the draft resolution is already in the government. The news is certainly good, especially for the socially unprotected segments of the population. It just appeared against the backdrop of information that from December all of us will unscheduledly increase housing and communal services tariffs by as much as 9 percent.

Today, families or single residents whose average payment for housing and communal services exceeds 22% of their income are entitled to apply for a subsidy from the state. Such a threshold is set in 60 subjects of the Federation. In other regions, it may be even lower – at the discretion of local authorities. For example, in Moscow it is 10%, in St. Petersburg – 14%. The Ministry of Construction, on its own initiative, proposes for socially vulnerable segments of society (large families or pensioners living alone) to reduce this figure to 10-18%.

The scheme is already being successfully tested in some Russian regions. So, in the Voronezh region for large families, the bar is set at 18%. In Murmansk, for single old people reduced from 22 to 10%. In Altai, citizens living in territories equated with the regions of the Far North – up to 14%.

And one could rejoice at the care that the construction department shows about socially vulnerable segments of the population, if not for one “but”. Very soon, in a month, utility tariffs in Russia will be raised by 9% for everyone.

This is a significant increase in the communal, especially when you consider that since July 1 this year, tariffs have already been raised in a planned manner by an average of 4%. In total, it turns out that the payment for housing and communal services in 2022 was updated twice – and in total by as much as 13%, which is even higher than the annual inflation expected by the government (12.4%).

Some experts believe that with the proposed concessions, the Ministry of Construction is trying to reduce the general negative reaction of Russians. Which, against the backdrop of a rise in price of everything and everything from December, will pay for new utility bills. Despite the fact that about 19 million people live below the poverty line.

– Some media reports that the threshold for recipients of utility subsidies will be reduced across the country from 22% to 15 or 18%. Is this really true or is it wishful thinking?

“Two or three years ago, such an idea was in the air,” says Pavel Sklyanchuk, an expert of the Popular Front on the national project “Housing and Urban Environment”. – The Ministry of Construction proposed to reduce the threshold for subsidies from 22 to 15%. But this proposal did not receive support, since the authorities could not find additional sources of funding.

So 22% as they were, and remain. So far, we are talking about an exception for families with many children and pensioners living alone. After all, among those who are included in these 22%, there are citizens who are in dire need, whose income level is below the subsistence level per family member. According to them, the government will orient the regions to increase the level of compensation. Sets a fixed number for all subjects. And the threshold of 22% for the majority has remained the same.

– Exactly one month later, we will once again increase the tariff for payment of housing and communal services – now by 9%. What caused it?

– But they promise not to increase in the 23rd year. Let’s hope that this will be the case.

As for the extraordinary “adjustment” of tariffs, the authorities are clearly trying to step up the pace of modernization of the communal infrastructure. Today, an average of 2% of pipelines per year are changed in the country, and 5% wear out, become unusable. We know what such “catch-up modernization” turns into: accidents, blackouts of electricity and heat in the winter. An increase in tariffs for energy resources could be “hung” not on citizens, but on enterprises and legal entities. But in this case, they would raise the prices of their goods. And it is not yet known what will hit our pocket harder.

Pavel Arkhangelsky, an expert on housing and communal services, believes that in practice everything will remain approximately at the current level. The bill of the Ministry of Construction will undergo a mandatory examination by the Ministry of Finance, because depressed regions that cannot compensate for the losses of public utilities on their own will ask this department for money. And the government will listen first of all to the Ministry of Finance, and not to the Ministry of Construction. If an appropriate amendment is made to Article 159 of the Housing Code regarding the fixed threshold from which benefits are calculated, then it will become mandatory throughout the country.