in Russia they want to replace paper receipts for housing and communal services with electronic ones – Kommersant

The State Duma Commission on Ensuring the Housing Rights of Citizens approved a bill proposing to change the form of sending notifications with bills for housing and communal services (HCS). It is proposed to finally replace the paper version with an electronic one. This is reported “News” with reference to the commission’s conclusion.

The authors of the initiative are United Russia deputies from the Krasnodar Territory. They submitted the document to the State Duma on March 9. The draft law notes that it will help solve the problem of the discrepancy between the place of residence of the payer and the address of the residential premises for which the invoice is issued. It is also expected that the implementation of the initiative will contribute to saving regional budget funds.

In the explanatory note, deputies note that the cost of agency services has more than tripled since 2021 – from 31.3 million to 75 million in 2023. For the current year, 100 million rubles have already been allocated for the mentioned purposes. The deputies are also convinced that the initiative they proposed will help preserve forest plantations.

According to the conclusion of the specialized commission, the bill complies with the decision of the plenum of the Supreme Court that the consumer of utility services cannot be required to receive a document exclusively in paper or electronic form. Also, the Constitutional Court’s ruling established that duplication of payment documents in electronic form helps create conditions for paying bills.

The document is now under consideration by the Ministry of Construction, the department told Izvestia. The Ministry of Digital Development has not yet commented on the initiative.

General Director of the Russian Environmental Operator (REO) Denis Butsaev back in March 2023 sent a letter to the Ministry of Construction with a proposal for a gradual transition to electronic payments for housing and communal services. The REO noted that the monthly distribution of printed documents leads to the waste of 50 tons of paper.

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