The growth of payments (including for electricity and gas supply, water supply, sewerage, heat supply) is regulated by authorities. Every year, the Russian government issues a decree that sets an upper limit for the growth of payments for utility resources for each region.
In accordance with the government decree of October 29, 2019, from July 1, the largest increase in housing and communal services tariffs is expected in Chechnya (6.5%), the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (5.4%), the Republic of Dagestan (5.2%), Ingushetia ( 5.1%), Moscow (5%). In the Moscow region, tariffs will increase by 4.1% from July 1. In St. Petersburg, which last year was ahead of the country in terms of growth in utility bills, the increase will be moderate (3.8%). The smallest increase in tariffs is envisaged in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (2.4%).
Since 2013, utility tariffs in Russia have been indexed once a year from July 1 in order to curb inflation. In 2021, tariff indexation was carried out in two stages due to an increase in the VAT rate from 18% to 20%. From January 1, 2021, tariffs increased by 1.7%, from July 1 - by 2.4%. In 2020 and subsequent years, indexation of housing and communal services tariffs will occur once a year from July 1.
The decision is up to the regions
Regions set the cost of individual types of utility resources so that, at a constant level of consumption, the increase in the total payment falls within the amounts recommended by the government, Svetlana Razvorotneva, executive director of the non-profit partnership Housing and Communal Services Control, and deputy chairman of the public council under the Ministry of Construction, explained to TASS.
According to the monitoring of the NP Housing and Communal Services Control, in connection with the coronavirus pandemic, many regions began to make decisions to freeze payments for one or more types of utility resources. Among them are the Volgograd region (for the removal of solid municipal waste), the Irkutsk region (for cold water supply, hot water supply, the removal of solid municipal waste, contributions for major repairs), the Kaluga region (for the removal of solid municipal waste), the Nizhny Novgorod region (for heating), the Ryazan region (for major repairs, removal of solid municipal waste and gas supply), Yaroslavskaya (for removal of solid municipal waste).
According to the organization, an increase in tariffs below the level established by order of the Government of the Russian Federation, from July 1, 2021, will occur in the Altai Territory, Astrakhan Region, Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, Kamchatka Territory, Kursk Region, Magadan Region, Murmansk Region, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Orenburg Region, Penza region, Smolensk region, Tula region, Ulyanovsk region.
“In two regions it was decided to postpone the increase in tariffs to a later date. In the Irkutsk region, tariff increases will occur later than July 1, 2021 for the following utilities: cold water supply and hot water supply. In the Moscow region, the deadline for increasing utility tariffs for gas supply has been postponed,” Razvorotneva said.
Utility tariffs from January 1, 2021
Utility tariffs from July 1, 2021
Utility tariffs from January 1, 2021
Utility tariffs from July 1, 2021
Utility tariffs from July 1, 2017
Utility tariffs
Tariffs used for settlements with citizens - owners (tenants) for consumed utilities, established by the Order of the Department of Economic Development and Reconstruction of Russia "On adjustment of long-term tariffs and setting prices dated December 7, 2018 No. 309-TR, dated December 3, 2018 No. 235-TR, dated 12.12.2018 No. 281-TR, dated 03.12.2018 No. 233-TR, dated 25.11.2020 No. 2065-PP"
| No. | Name of utility service | Unit measurements | Tariff from 07/01/2020, RUB. |
| 1 | Cold water supply | cubic meters | 40,48 |
| 2 | Hot water supply | cubic meters | 198,19 |
| 3 | Water disposal | cubic meters | 29,57 |
| 4 | Heating | Gcal | 2389,72 |
Tariffs for cold water supply and sewerage for settlements with the population in the presence of water meters. (introduced from 07/01/2020)
| No. | Tariffs (RUB/cubic meter per month including VAT) | |
| 1 | Cold water supply | 40,48 |
| 2 | Water disposal | 29,57 |
Other services
| No. | Name of service | Price, rub./subscriber (apartment) per month | Regulatory document |
| 1 | TV broadcasting services | 245,00 | The tariff was set by OJSC National Cable Networks |
| 2 | Radio broadcasting services | 117,96 | The tariff is set by the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Moscow City Radio Broadcasting Network" |
| 3 | Locking device maintenance services: | 64,00 | Decree of the Moscow Government of October 12, 2010 N 937-PP “On prices for services for the maintenance of locking devices installed in the entrances of residential buildings” |
Tariffs used for settlements with citizens - owners (tenants) for consumed utilities, established by the Order of the Department of Economic Development and Reconstruction of Russia "On adjustment of long-term tariffs and setting prices dated December 7, 2018 No. 309-TR, dated December 3, 2018 No. 235-TR, dated 12.12.2018 No. 281-TR, dated 03.12.2018 No. 233-TR, dated 25.11.2020 No. 2065-PP"
| No. | House categories | Prices for maintenance and repair of residential premises | |||
| for the area occupied within the established standards (in rubles per 1 sq. m of total area per month with VAT) | from 01/01/2021 | ||||
| for residential premises located on the second and subsequent floors | for residential premises located on the ground floor of the house | ||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||
| 1. | Apartment buildings: | ||||
| 1.1 | Residential buildings with all amenities, with an elevator and a garbage chute | 31,89 | 27,80 | ||
| 1.2 | Hiring | 26,42 | |||
Tariffs for thermal energy
Tariffs for hot water supply for settlements with the population in the presence of water meters. OJSC “MOEK”, other organizations engaged in the production and transmission of thermal energy. (entered from 07/01/2020)
| No. | Unit measurements | Tariffs for the population (including VAT) | |
| 1 | Hot water services | rub./cub. m | 198,19 |
Tariffs for electrical energy supplied to the population by JSC MOSENERGOSBYT, LLC RUSENERGOSBYT M and other energy sales organizations (introduced from 01/01/2021)
| No. | Tariffs for the population (including VAT) | |
| 1 | The population is urban in the absence of an automated accounting system. Including: electric stoves | 4,87 |
About freezing tariffs
Due to the pandemic, proposals to freeze tariffs were also made at the federal level, but were not accepted, since the temporary relief that freezing utility tariffs provides ultimately results in a deterioration in the quality of utility services, Razvorotneva noted.
Today, payment collection has decreased by 10-15%, the lost industry income is estimated by the Russian Ministry of Construction at 70-80 billion rubles, Sergei Pakhomov, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Housing Policy and Housing and Communal Services, noted in a conversation with TASS. “Underfunding of the industry will lead to extremely unfavorable consequences, primarily for the citizens themselves: poor-quality provision of utility services, interruptions in the supply of utility resources, and so on. I consider it possible to reduce or freeze tariffs only by decision of the regions, which can effectively assess the situation in the industry and make the most informed decision,” the deputy said.
Rates
1. In accordance with the order of the Department of Economic Policy and Development of the City of Moscow dated December 12, 2018 No. 273-TR, long-term tariffs for wastewater disposal for consumers of the State Unitary Enterprise "Mosvodostok" were approved (excluding VAT):
- from 01/01/2018 to 06/30/2018 - 12.99 rubles/cubic meter
- from 07/01/2018 to 12/31/2018 - 13.61 rubles/cubic meter
- from 01/01/2019 to 06/30/2019 - 13.61 rubles/cubic meter
- from 07/01/2019 to 12/31/2019 - 14.04 rubles/cubic meter
- from 01/01/2020 to 06/30/2020 - 14.04 rubles/cubic meter
- from 07/01/2020 to 12/31/2020 - 14.21 rubles/cubic meter
2. In accordance with the order of the Department of Economic Policy and Development of the City of Moscow dated April 13, 2018. No. 29-TR approved long-term tariffs for wastewater disposal for consumers of the State Unitary Enterprise "Mosvodostok" in the territory of the innovative in the amount of 17.61 rubles / cubic meter from April 24, 2018. until December 31, 2018 (excluding VAT)
3. In accordance with the order of the Department of Economic Policy and Development of the City of Moscow dated November 29, 2019. No. 212-TR approved long-term tariffs for wastewater disposal carried out by the State Unitary Enterprise "Mosvodostok" on the territory of the Skolkovo Information Center (excluding VAT):
- from 01/01/2019 to 06/30/2019 - 17.61 rub./cubic meter
- from 07/01/2019 to 12/31/2019 – 18.43 rubles/cubic meter
- from 01/01/2020 to 06/30/2020 - 18.43 rubles/cubic meter
- from 07/01/2020 to 12/31/2020 – 18.74 rubles/cubic meter
- from 01/01/2021 to 06/30/2021 - 18.74 rubles/cubic meter
- from 07/01/2021 to 12/31/2023 –19.42 rubles/cubic meter
4. In accordance with the order of the Department of Economic Policy and Development of the City of Moscow dated December 6, 2019. No. 245-TR, long-term tariffs for wastewater disposal for consumers of the State Unitary Enterprise "Mosvodostok" were adjusted (excluding VAT):
- from 01/01/2019 to 06/30/2019 - 13.61 rub./cubic meter
- from 07/01/2019 to 12/31/2019 – 14.04 rubles/cubic meter
- from 01/01/2020 to 06/30/2020 - 14.04 rub./cub.m
- from 07/01/2020 to 12/31/2020 – 14.93 rubles/cubic meter
5. In accordance with the order of the Department of Economic Policy and Development of the City of Moscow dated November 24, 2020 No. 181-TR, taking into account the changes made by the order of the Department of Economic Policy and Development dated December 15, 2021. No. 311-TR, long-term tariffs for wastewater disposal for consumers of the State Unitary Enterprise "Mosvodostok" were adjusted (excluding VAT):
- from 01/01/2021 to 06/30/2021 - 14.93 rubles/cubic meter
- from 07/07/2021 to 12/31/2021 – 15.46 rubles/cubic meter
- from 01/01/2022 to 06/30/2022 - 15.46 rubles/cubic meter
- from 07/07/2022 to 12/31/2022 – 17.46 rubles/cubic meter
- from 01/01/2023 to 06/30/2023 - 17.46 rubles/cubic meter
- from 07/07/2023 to 12/31/2023 – 18.16 rubles/cubic meter
- from 01/01/2024 to 06/30/2024 - 18.16 rubles/cubic meter
- from 07/07/2024 to 12/31/2021 – 18.89 rubles/cubic meter
- from 01/01/2025 to 06/30/2025 - 18.89 rubles/cubic meter
- from 07/01/2025 to 12/31/2025 – 19.91 rub./cub.m
How to help citizens?
Pakhomov recalled that in the housing and communal services sector, citizens with low incomes receive subsidies for payment, he believes.
Pavel Sklyanchuk, an expert on the ONF’s thematic platform “Housing and the Urban Environment,” in a conversation with TASS, noted the expediency of the proposal of the public council under the Ministry of Construction to revise the indicators at which low-income families receive compensation for housing and utility bills, he told TASS.
The expert also believes that it is necessary not only to increase the level of subsidies to the population, but also to reduce energy losses for which residents of old houses pay - the lower the quality of housing, the higher the costs for utilities. “To do this, it is necessary to extend housing and communal services benefits to energy efficient measures, including within the framework of energy service contracts. Then the size of the receipt itself will decrease,” Sklyanchuk said.
Smooth increase
In 2021, the increase in the total payment of citizens for housing and communal services on average in Russia is set at 4%, Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) Vitaly Korolev told Izvestia. The increase will take place on July 1; from January 1, there will be no increase in fees, he emphasized.
The government approves its own maximum index for each region - the threshold for the total increase in utility bills, added Vitaly Korolev. The order of the Cabinet of Ministers concerns prices for gas, heating, electricity, hot and cold water, sewerage and garbage collection.
The size of the index differs in different regions. For example, in the Chechen Republic the threshold is set at 6.5%, in Yakutia - 6%, in the Novgorod region - 6.4%, in the Murmansk region - 3.2%, in Magadan - 3.8%, in the Penza region - 3.4% , indicated in the government order. But on average it's about 4%.
Standard gain
Photo: IZVESTIA/Zurab Javakhadze
“The FAS regularly monitors compliance with the indices established by the government,” noted Vitaly Korolev.
Counter for a billion: they want to cancel the universal installation of “smart” devices
Business fears rising costs amounting to more than 1 trillion rubles
As Izvestia wrote, earlier the antimonopoly service developed a draft resolution according to which the maximum threshold in electricity tariffs could increase beyond what is permitted in the case of the installation of “smart” meters. From July 1, 2021, failed meters in apartments must be replaced by electricity suppliers at their own expense, and from January 1, 2022, all of them must be “smart.”
Vitaly Korolev told Izvestia that no exceptions have now been established, including exceeding indexes due to the installation of metering devices. The issue of the source of funds for the transition to new devices and the transfer of readings from them is being discussed in the government. Izvestia sent a request to the Cabinet of Ministers.
According to the Ministry of Construction, the costs of installing smart meters should not be borne by citizens, the department told Izvestia.
“Devices integrated into the smart system should significantly reduce the commercial losses of electricity suppliers, and these savings will also help pay for the installation of new meters,” the Ministry of Construction believes.
Standard gain
Photo: IZVESTIA/Alexander Kazakov
For the housing and communal services sector, fees for housing and communal services are the only source of income besides subsidies from the budget. Therefore, their indexation is inevitable - due to inflation, price fluctuations in the fuel market, the need to repair infrastructure, pay wages to employees, said Pavel Sklyanchuk, an expert on the ONF “Housing and Urban Environment” thematic platform.
What will digitalization of the process of regulating utility tariffs give?
— In the areas of heat supply, water supply and sanitation, municipal solid waste management and electricity alone, regulated activities are carried out by more than 28.5 thousand organizations, for which regional authorities annually make more than 71 thousand tariff decisions. Despite the fact that the FAS checks the validity of tariffs no more than 25 people. It turns out that each of them accounted for an average of 236 tariff decisions per month, which must be analyzed in the most careful manner for validity.
We see the digital format for setting tariffs as follows: tariff applications from resource supply organizations are submitted electronically. Expert opinions of the regulatory body are formed in the same way. Then, reference tariffs for utility resources are automatically calculated, and based on the specified parameters, a calculation of standardized tariff rates for connection to heat, water supply and sanitation networks is generated.
In April of this year, the service presented a unified form of expert opinions and tariff applications developed by the FAS Russia. They will make it possible to monitor in real time the parameters of tariff decisions proposed by experts of the regulatory body for approval, and at the preliminary stage to exclude obvious violations of the law. We have already prepared changes to the Tariff Regulation Rules.
Expert opinions and tariff applications of organizations will be uploaded in electronic format through our electronic platform. This is an important step to ensure the digital transformation of tariff regulation as one of the FAS priorities for the coming years. Now these documents do not have a set form. They may not comply with the law in terms of detailed specification of the grounds for taking into account each cost item in the tariff. This complicates the work of regulatory authorities and calls into question the economic justification of both individual cost items in the organization’s tariff and the correctness of its establishment as a whole.
Since March 2021, a “federal tariff traffic light” began operating, which automatically analyzes the errors of regional regulatory authorities when setting tariffs. They fill out electronic template tables with the parameters of the tariff solution, and the system highlights errors in red and correct values in green. By July 14, the “traffic light” allowed about 40 tariff decisions to be canceled at the preliminary stage. Now it conducts analysis based on 10 parameters, and by 2023 it will be able to analyze tariff decisions based on 100 parameters.
Vitaly Korolev. Photo: FAS press service
This, on the one hand, is automation, when there is no need to analyze tariff decisions through document requests or on-site inspections: we immediately see whether there is data that does not comply with restrictions or methodological recommendations. On the other hand, prevention so that the number of violations is reduced.
In addition, digitalization can reduce operating costs, partly personnel costs, and postal costs associated with setting tariffs. With the introduction of standards or the overall digitalization of the process, it will be possible to use fewer people for typical tasks, thereby increasing their productivity.
28.5 thousand organizations work in the areas of heat supply, water supply and sanitation, municipal solid waste management and power generation
At a minimum, digitalization should not lead to an increase in tariffs, which is not bad. Of course, at the first stage, automation of any processes is often expensive, because it is necessary to develop new IT solutions, perhaps create some digital platforms or services. We expect that the mechanism that we are currently implementing will not require significant costs, but will significantly save time and resources for all participants in the process, and these include regulated companies and tariff authorities of constituent entities. Digitalization will also add transparency to tariff decisions and justify their amounts. Citizens will have more confidence in government decisions aimed at improving the quality of services in the housing and communal services sector.
