Tariffs crossed in a sweeping way – Newspaper Kommersant No. 49 (7494) of 03/23/2023
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Businesses will pay a record amount for reducing electricity tariffs for the population. In 2023, the volume of cross-subsidization, according to HSE estimates, jumped by 18%, to 294 billion rubles. Such dynamics, according to analysts, is associated with a sharp increase in the total revenue of grid companies and the inclusion of an estimated profit of 5% in the tariffs of large organizations. The FAS claims that the amount of the subsidy is within the permitted level. In Rosseti, they remind that the growth in the revenue of the networks was calculated taking into account the freezing of tariffs until the summer of 2024.
The volume of cross-subsidizing in the power grid complex (payment by businesses for reducing energy tariffs for the population) has reached a record 293.9 billion rubles, follows from an analysis by the HSE Institute for Economics and Regulation of Infrastructure Industries based on open data. It increased by 44 billion rubles, or by 18% year-on-year (see chart).
The growth of cross-subsidization occurred in the vast majority of regions, and in 20 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, because of this, regulators had to index transmission tariffs for businesses above the limit of 9% (see Kommersant of January 25). The largest specific value of cross-subsidization is in Mari El (1.47 rubles per 1 kWh), Dagestan (1.46 rubles), Chechnya (1.41 rubles).
Residential tariffs have been kept below economically justified levels since the 1990s. The government has repeatedly tried to eliminate this imbalance and in 2014 instructed the Ministry of Economy and the Federal Antimonopoly Service to draw up a schedule for its reduction. But instead, in 2022, regulators were allowed to increase the amount of cross-subsidization above the ceiling (241 billion rubles).
The main reason for the increase in the subsidy is the growth in the planned revenue of grid companies. Regulators approved the revenue of all companies at the level of 1.15 trillion rubles. The revenue of the largest of them amounted to 846.1 billion rubles, an increase of 18%, or 128.8 billion rubles. A third of the increase, or about 40 billion rubles, is the amount of estimated entrepreneurial profit (ERP).
For the first time, the government allowed accounting for PSC in the amount of 5% of total revenue in 2023 for large companies with a share of more than 10% in the region (see Kommersant dated January 24, 2022). Regulators took into account RPP in most regions where tariffs for businesses were indexed above the ceiling, analysts say: “Rejection of accounting for RRR would reduce the number of regions that needed to exceed the ceiling.”
“Cross subsidizing is part of the state’s social policy, which is aimed at preventing a sharp increase in tariffs for the population,” the Federal Antimonopoly Service told Kommersant. They noted that the maximum level of cross-subsidization was not exceeded: the indicator in 2023 amounted to 290.9 billion rubles. at the maximum possible level of 304 billion rubles. The service assured that accounting for RPP cannot be the basis for exceeding the maximum levels of tariffs and, in general, did not lead to “an unreasonable increase in the required gross revenue (RGR)”.
Rosseti told Kommersant that the increase in NGR is due to unscheduled indexation of tariffs on December 1, 2022: the next indexation is scheduled no earlier than July 1, 2024, so the increase in NGR for 2022-2024 will not exceed inflation. “For individual constituent entities of the Russian Federation, decisions to set tariffs that differ from the maximum levels were made to eliminate the local regulatory imbalances that have arisen that are not related to the need to take into account the RPP,” the state holding added.
“The situation clearly illustrates how the “crossroads” has been transformed from a tool of social protection into a way of financing the ever-increasing costs of network monopolies,” the Community of Energy Consumers believes. very difficult”.
Aleksey Faddeev from IPEM believes that the increase in NGR is associated with a 15% increase in prices for industrial goods in the energy sector in 2022. There are no objective prerequisites for reducing subsidies, he believes: “Tariffs for the population will be restrained, and there are no other ways to cover growing costs, except to shift them into tariffs for commercial consumers.” Moreover, the real amount of the cost of supporting the population, according to Sergey Rozhenko from Kept, already exceeds 450 billion rubles. per year, taking into account the discount on the price of electricity for the population in the wholesale energy market.
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