The Ministry of Construction is ready to once again extend the deadline for introducing uniform standards for utility services

The Ministry of Construction is ready to give the regions another delay to introduce uniform standards for the consumption of utility services, which should unify the payment for them in houses not equipped with meters – from January 1, 2024 to January 1, 2025. The proposal arose against the backdrop of changes in the regulatory framework and risks of rising fees for housing and communal services. But the department is trying to put an end to this issue, intending to “exclude regular renewal” in the future. Experts believe that instead of delaying it would be more effective to ensure full metering of utility consumption.

The Ministry of Construction has prepared a draft government decree on the next extension of the deadline for regions to introduce uniform standards for the consumption of utility services for another year, until January 1, 2025. As follows from the explanatory note to the draft, the department intends to “in the future exclude regular extensions” of deadlines, although there are no such prohibitions in the draft resolution.

We are talking about the unification of the amount of payment for housing and communal services proposed back in 2014 in houses that are not equipped with common house metering devices: in order to avoid situations where it differs significantly in neighboring houses or areas, it was proposed to switch to uniform standards for houses with similar technical parameters (year buildings, number of storeys) and located in the same climatic conditions. The process should also be accompanied by the implementation of energy saving programs. Initially, the implementation of uniform standards by the regions that made this decision (four regions refused) was supposed to be completed by 2016. But the deadlines have been postponed more than once due to various reasons, for example, restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, which generally complicated the implementation of the energy saving program (see “Kommersant” dated December 7, 2020). Now, according to the Ministry of Construction, 48 regions have introduced the new system, and another nine will complete the transition by the end of the year.

The Ministry of Construction explains the need for a new transfer by the fact that in March 2023 the procedure for calculating heat consumption standards changed and it now takes at least a year to establish standards. In general, the department emphasizes, the extension “will prevent a sharp increase in fees, primarily for heating in houses that are not equipped with metering devices, due to the application of incorrect standards.” Twenty regions reported not completing the transition due to the fact that after calculating uniform standards, “a significant increase in fees is predicted.”

As Irina Gentsler, director of the Urban Economy direction of the Institute of Urban Economics Foundation, notes, it is necessary to resolve the issue not with uniform standards, but with a full transition to metered consumption accounting, only this will ensure payment based on consumption and at fair prices. “Otherwise, the interests of unscrupulous owners are actually protected to the detriment of conscientious ones,” she believes, explaining: the fact that the calculated standards now lead to an increase in fees means that consumption is actually higher than the current ones. Executive Director of NP ZHKH-Control Sergei Sokhranov notes that maximum “instrumentation” to ensure energy consumption metering will reduce the number of consumers who will be affected by an increase in the standard volume of consumption; they must clearly understand why metering is necessary, and only material benefits are effective energy saving stimulator. The fact that only 48 regions have been able to introduce uniform tariffs since 2016, he believes, indicates the presence of objective obstacles to the implementation of plans on time and the risk of violation of the rights of consumers of services, however, “the awareness of the possibility of another transfer should not become a way of evading responsibility, due to why the resolution should include a ban on extension.”

Evgenia Kryuchkova