For Muscovites who did not install water meters, they decided to increase the overpayment

For residents of the capital, St. Petersburg and Sevastopol, it is proposed to create a special formula

The final point in the dispute about whether water meters are needed was put by the Ministry of Construction. Residents of metropolitan areas, who prefer to do without metering devices for the time being, will be forced to pay heavily for housing and communal services.

The construction department made a real horse move. Officials figured out how to spur tight-fisted residents of large cities to install water meters. To this end, the Ministry of Construction has prepared amendments to the “Rules for the provision of public services to owners and users of premises in apartment buildings and residential buildings.”

The purpose of the amendments is to make life without metering devices completely unprofitable. The developers of the innovations reminded that according to the law “On Energy Saving” the owners of residential buildings and apartments in apartment buildings until July 1, 2012, and for the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol until January 1, 2019, are obliged to equip their housing with water, heat and electricity meters. At the same time, high-rise buildings themselves must be equipped, including individual and general water and electricity meters, within the same period.

However, this requirement has not been implemented everywhere. Officials complain that residents in large cities often prefer not to spend money on meters. Especially greedy are those who pour a lot of water from the tap and are afraid that after installing the meter they will receive fabulous bills.

In addition, the Ministry of Construction drew attention to the fact that the current formula for calculating the cost of water for people without meters is far from perfect. So, according to the current rules for calculating the tariff is multiplied by the consumption rate, and then the resulting number is multiplied by the number of citizens registered in the apartment.

This is where the officials found a catch: if much more people actually huddle on square meters than officially prescribed, these unrecorded residents can use water for free. Such a problem, according to the developers of the amendments, is most relevant for the federal centers – Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sevastopol.

To close the loophole, officials propose for three cities of federal significance to establish a special multiplier to the consumption standard in addition to the usual formula for calculating the cost of water. Note that now the multiplying factor exists, it is equal to 1.5. But with the new amendments, officials in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sevastopol will be able to set their own coefficients. If necessary, they can be both lower and higher than the current one.