Putin’s clause will save pensioners 20 billion rubles

Vladimir Putin’s reservation regarding the abolition of fees for housing and communal services for pensioners during a recent direct line caused considerable resonance in the public space. Both the president himself and the public considered it extremely successful and socially useful. However, in practice the measure itself may prove difficult to implement purely technically. In addition, according to analysts, there is a possibility that the costs will ultimately fall on the shoulders of other categories of the population – in the form of additional utility tariffs.

Let us remind you that in early December, the State Duma adopted a law according to which, from July 1, 2024, banks will not be able to charge fees for paying for housing and communal services from individuals “in need of social support.” The full list of categories must be approved by the government. Obviously, it will include pensioners, the disabled, the poor, and military veterans. Work on the bill took several years, and one of its early versions provided for the abolition of banking commissions for all citizens without exception. However, this caused controversy in the expert community. Concerns have been expressed that banks will not abolish payment of their commission services, but will collect them from resource-saving and management organizations. Well, they, in turn, will try to compensate for the costs through an additional column in the housing and communal services tariff schedule.

Complaints from Russians about excessive bank commissions when making utility payments were voiced during the president’s direct line on December 14. Responding to a pensioner from Novosibirsk, Putin noted that he considers it wrong when you have to pay a bank for a primitive utility service. “This will not affect pensioners,” he assured. Later, at a meeting with the leaders of the Duma factions, Putin admitted that he had made a reservation: the abolition of commissions when paying for housing and communal services was initially planned only for beneficiaries, and not for all Russian pensioners. However, according to him, the clause turned out to be “good”, and now the government will indeed abolish commissions for all pensioners. Don’t let your subordinates disavow the president’s words!

How much this measure will cost banks is a separate difficult question. According to estimates by the National Council for the Financial Market, the amount of commission charged by banks when paying for housing and communal services through them is on average 0.5-1% (about 30-40 rubles) using remote services and 1.5% through an operator. In the second case, we are talking about people (mostly elderly) who themselves come to a bank branch with a paper receipt and pay in cash.

“Let’s do the math,” suggests Aleksey Zubets, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. – In total, the average Russian pays about 11% of his annual budget for housing and communal services, including electricity, water, heating. The population as a whole is about 8 trillion rubles. And pensioners, of whom we have 41.5 million people, cost 1 trillion rubles. Since we are talking about a bank commission for this total amount (on average 1%), we receive, roughly speaking, 11 billion rubles. However, there are still beneficiaries and low-income people, totaling more than 28 million people. That is, the final cost figure will be close to 18-20 billion rubles.”

According to MK’s interlocutor, banks will not compensate for the costs of the government measure at their own expense, but will simply increase the commission for paying for housing and communal services for other consumers. Moreover, the main problem is not even this, but a purely technical issue related to the task of identifying payers-beneficiaries. You will have to create a specific database and update it at least once a month. Who will do this, how long will it take, will the data be correct, will there be complaints from payers that they were assigned to the wrong category and were charged an unfair commission?

“For example, I pay rent for the apartment of my retired mother, who is 85 years old,” says Zubets. – We live separately, and the payment comes from my bank card. And how to connect and record both of these ends in the database? There are a lot of similar stories, and each one must be dealt with separately. Maybe the idea of ​​abolishing fees for housing and communal services for pensioners is correct; giving elderly people this kind of gifts, especially election ones, is in the order of things. But it would be better if the state simply made a supplement to the pension – in the amount of exactly this commission. Then the banks would not have a headache. Now many of them will have to rebuild their entire payment infrastructure, which has been created over the years. It’s easier for market monopolists in this regard: they have teams of IT specialists who can solve such problems. But for medium-sized and regional banks this will become a problem.”

Meanwhile, the net profit of the Russian banking sector at the end of 2023 is expected to be around 3 trillion rubles, which will be a record value in history. Maybe banks shouldn’t worry? After all, against this background, their losses from Putin’s reservation – even 20 billion rubles – look like a mere trifle.

On the scale of the federal budget and bank profits, we are talking about funny money, agrees leading researcher at INION RAS Sergei Smirnov. Another thing is pensioners, beneficiaries and low-income people, for whom 30-50 rubles saved would not be out of place. Of course, there is no need to exempt everyone from the commission, but if a person receives a pension at or below the subsistence level in the region, he clearly deserves such a benefit, the expert is sure.