The link of the city with New Moscow – Newspaper Kommersant No. 227 (7428) of 07.12.2022

Electricity tariffs for rural residents with electric stoves could rise to city levels, follows from new federal pricing rules. On their basis, the Moscow regulator has already equated the villagers with the townspeople, which led to an increase in tariffs for residents of New Moscow settlements in some cases by 60%. Analysts see Moscow’s decision as the right one, calling for an accelerated reduction of often outdated benefits for the population. FAS, however, argues that regions do not have to follow federal rules. Experts also doubt that Moscow will be a role model.

For the first time, the Moscow Tariff Regulator established uniform electricity tariffs for rural and urban residents with electric stoves and electric heating (this includes everyone who does not have a gas connection). The capital includes 21 settlements in the territories of New Moscow, where, according to the Mosstat, 220.7 thousand people (1.7% of the total population of the city) live – these people are considered rural residents. Rural tariffs are always lower than urban ones, so electricity prices in New Moscow have risen sharply.

Since December 1, the one-part tariff for residents of New Moscow settlements without gas has increased by 31.6%, to 5.66 rubles. per 1 kWh, and in the “peak zone” of the three-phase tariff, the price jumped by 59%, to 8.23 ​​rubles. Moreover, for residents of settlements with gas supply, prices remained at the lowest level: a single-rate tariff for them is 4.5 rubles. In general, the payment of residents of New Moscow, who do not have access to gas, according to Kommersant’s estimates, could amount to 1.4 billion rubles. per year – by 288 million rubles. more than before the rate increase.

The Department of Economic Policy and Development of Moscow was guided by the new federal rules (an amendment to the government decree “Fundamentals of Tariff Pricing”), published in November, sources told Kommersant and confirmed in the mayor’s office. In the updated document, since 2023, the urban population with electric stoves and electric heating has been combined with the rural population, which “was the reason for a one-time outstripping increase in tariffs,” Kommersant was told in the department. However, there are no such requirements in the FAS methodology for setting tariffs, which is attached to the government decree: it turns out that the documents contradict each other, Kommersant’s sources say.

The Department of Economic Policy and Development of Moscow also told Kommersant that the FAS has established a new methodology that provides for “an accelerated pace of bringing zone tariffs to their economically justified level.”

As a result, the amount of cross-subsidization in the region for 2023 decreased by 47%, to 1.7 billion rubles, they said. The department recommended that Muscovites change the tariff or consume electricity during off-peak hours to save money.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service told Kommersant that the government decree “provides for the possibility” of the regions to set separate tariffs for the population in rural areas with electric stoves and electric heating and for the population in rural areas without electric stoves and electric heating. The amendment is aimed at the possibility of reducing cross-subsidization. The service added that they continue “work to expand the tariff menu and give it additional flexibility” in response to “numerous requests from the regions.” The final tariffs are set by the regions, they indicate in the service, noting that the electricity tariffs for the population established by the Department of Economic Policy and Development of Moscow are set below the maximum minimum levels in agreement with the Federal Antimonopoly Service.

Sergei Sasim from the Institute for Economics and Regulation of Infrastructure Industries at the National Research University Higher School of Economics believes that Moscow’s decision is fully in line with federal norms of tariff regulation. The basics of tariff pricing is a document of higher legal force than the FAS guidelines, the expert notes. Moreover, the establishment of different tariffs for citizens and villagers with an electric stove would create grounds for canceling the tariff decision and risks for the Moscow city budget associated with compensation for damage to consumers, whose rights would be infringed in this case, says Sergey Sasim. He doubts that other regions will massively revise tariffs following the example of Moscow, if there is no will from the FAS.

Perhaps a logical step in Moscow and other megacities would be the complete abolition of benefits for all new buildings within the city, as well as in the “urban agglomeration”, including cottage development and townhouses, beautifully hidden behind the “village” tariff category, believes Sergey Rozhenko from Kept. “The application of reducing coefficients of 0.7 to tariffs for the category of “electric stoves” is a historical anecdote, since the decision was made in 1946 and still wanders from document to document,” says Mr. Rozhenko. “As a result, high-rise housing (over ten floors , where gasification is prohibited) receives a “super benefit” by default, although a neighbor in an old gasified five-story building actually pays two to three times more for heating and light due to the low energy efficiency of housing.

Polina Smertina