The main problem with utility bills was the lack of transparency

In the late 1990s, I, then a State Duma deputy from St. “. The official was surprised and, it seemed to me, even offended that I was distracting with questions not of his level, and sent me to the head of the profile department: “She has been doing this all her life and will explain everything to you.” But instead of explaining, the elderly lady placed in front of me several thick folders with applications for tariff increases received by her committee from utility suppliers – they say, sort it out yourself if you need to.

I immediately saw that the new tariffs exactly repeated the requests of suppliers. I began to read the rationale, questions arose, but the lady immediately stopped my attempts: there are few employees in the department, everyone is overloaded, there is no one to understand these papers. Yes, and to nothing – after all, they were prepared by company specialists, experienced people.

And although much has changed for the better in the tariff regulation of utilities since then, I still treat decisions in this area with a fair amount of skepticism.

What do you think is better? In 2014, in the chaos of regional and municipal tariff setting, the government brought relative order. It was decided that the indexation of utility tariffs should be carried out throughout the country once a year, from July 1, at a level no higher than the maximum value annually approved by the Russian Government for all regions based on the forecast of the Ministry of Economic Development for the next three years.

According to the penultimate such forecast from April 2021, “the index of change in the payment of citizens for utilities in general in 2022-2024 will not exceed 4.0% on average in Russia, which corresponds to the target inflation.” At this level, limits were set for the growth of tariffs in the regions from July 1 in the past and this year. However, two months ago, the Ministry of Economics, referring to a significant acceleration of inflation this year, suggested that the regions revise tariffs, based on the maximum allowable increase from December 1 in household payments for all utilities by 9 percent.

The heads of the constituent entities of the Federation have already taken decisions on this matter. So, in Moscow, the maximum possible index was approved – 9%, which can be explained and justified by the capital’s refusal to index tariffs five months ago, when all other regions did it. But the same 9% was approved by the governor of the Vologda Oblast, who has no such justification. In other subjects, the data of which I saw in the GIS housing and communal services, the marginal indices are much lower – from 4% in the Krasnoyarsk Territory to 6.8% in the Krasnodar Territory. In St. Petersburg, the subject closest to Moscow in terms of all significant indicators for the public utilities sector, a draft decision on indexation by 8.5% has been prepared, while since July 1, tariffs have already been indexed by 3.3%. And in the Leningrad region, it was set significantly lower – 5.4%. Does this spread surprise you? I was surprised and forced to “deep into the topic.”

Finding the reliable information necessary for this turned out to be a very difficult task – there are no direct answers to the simplest questions in public access. And this is a serious social problem, because utility bills are constantly growing and already exceed 8% of all consumer spending of the average household. And the main providers of these services are monopolies, so competition here will not protect the consumer, all hope is on the authorities. But if citizens are not able to assess the rationale for tariff increases, they will not be able to influence their adoption. So decisions will inevitably be made in favor of the recipients of our payments, who, unlike consumers, are in a position to influence them.

I’ll start with the simplest questions. How much, on average, do residents of a country, region, municipality pay now for a “communal”? And for what volumes of utility services do they pay? I was helped to find answers by an article by Artem Ivolgin from the National Research University Higher School of Economics, who, according to Rosstat and the Ministry of Construction, calculated the cost of housing and communal services for July this year for a family of three without benefits for their payment, living in their own 52-meter apartment, in 93 major cities Russia. As expected, this indicator decreases from north to south, from the maximum in Naryan-Mar to the minimum in Makhachkala – after all, in the southern regions, the costs of heating, water heating, and lighting are much lower than in the north.

I compared utility rates in Moscow and St. Petersburg – the difference is very noticeable. For example, in November in Moscow, the price for the population of a cubic meter of cold water is 46 rubles, hot – 223 rubles, and in St. Petersburg, respectively, 34 and 117 rubles, gigacalories of thermal energy for heating – 2654 and 1948 rubles, kilowatt – hours of electricity – from 6.15 to 6.28 rubles. in Moscow and from 3.92 to 5.23 rubles. in St. Petersburg.

But even more surprising is the difference between the two cities, which are extremely close in terms of climatic conditions and standards for the consumption of communal resources. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the norms for consumption per person per month of cold water, respectively, are 6.935 and 4.9 cubic meters, hot water – 4.745 and 3.48 cubic meters, wastewater – 11.68 and 8.38 cubic meters.

In St. Petersburg, the electricity consumption standard, according to the Tariff Committee, is 63 kilowatt-hours per person per month. So far, it is like this, but from December 1 it should grow to 73 kilowatt-hours, that is, by about 16%. But the St. Petersburg standard for heating, which is already 30% higher than in Moscow, from December 1, it seems, will have to grow by another third.

Despite the multidirectional differences described, the average Muscovite in fact pays for heating almost a third more than a Petersburger, and his payments for water and electricity are one and a half times more. I see no other explanation for this, except for differences in the average incomes of the inhabitants of these cities: you can take more from those who are richer. And as for Muscovites with well below average incomes, Moscow protects them with housing subsidies, to which everyone whose housing and utility bills exceed 10% of household income are eligible. And a resident of St. Petersburg has such a right when this share exceeds 14%, in the vast majority of other regions – 22%.

So how much does the average Russian family pay for a “communal”? The answer was found in the release of the Ministry of Economic Development, according to which, as a result of 9% indexation, the total payment of an average Russian family of three for all utilities in December compared to November will increase by 324 rubles. From this we can calculate the average November payment of such a family – 3600 rubles, that is, 1200 rubles. per person per month.

But in St. Petersburg, for example, the tariff committee recently reported that the average city dweller, after indexing from December 1 by 8.5%, will have to pay 3,001 rubles for a “communal” apartment. per month, and this means that for November he will pay 2766 rubles. – two and a quarter times more than the average Russian. This does not seem plausible, especially since if we divide the amount of collection of payments from citizens for a “communal” declared by the same committee on tariffs in recent months by the number of residents of the city, we get an average monthly payment of 1840 rubles. per person – one and a half times more than the national average, and this is already much more realistic. If the first assessment is correct, this would indicate the huge scale of non-payments of the population, which are included in tariffs, about which we know little.

I am writing about this to convince of the clearly insufficient transparency of assessments and the validity of decisions that directly affect our financial well-being. I could also name other oddities in the justification of tariffs for utilities, housing, transport and other state-regulated services, the explanations for which I could not get from specialists. Yes, they almost did not remain outside the departments and their court institutions, whose expertise cannot be considered independent. Alas, the streams of public activity in this area, which were very noticeable in the 1990s and early 2000s, dried up without feedback from those who make decisions. People have lost faith that something can depend on them even in matters of spending their personal money, and then they lose interest in such decisions of the authorities, and this is a bad sign.

However, there is one important positive point in the decisions on the forthcoming indexation of tariffs, both federal and regional, that I would like to draw the attention of consumers to. It follows from them that if your receipts for the coming December or for the following months until June 2024, the amount of utility bills exceeds the amount in your November receipts by more than the index limit for your region or municipality, this should be considered a violation of the law , and you are not required to pay an amount exceeding this index. For those who find such a violation in their receipts, I advise you to contact the territorial bodies of Rospotrebnadzor or public associations of consumers: they can protect your rights before service providers, including by going to court.