The State Duma is preparing a request to the Federal Antimonopoly Service in order to obtain information about the reasons for the sharp increase in tariffs for communal services from July 1.
All previous attempts by parliamentarians to deal with extremely murky tariffs in the housing and communal services sector have come to nothing. How will it be this time?
Back in early 2025, it was officially announced that the cost of utilities would rise by more than 2 times above the inflation rate. At the same time, the authorities did not even want to explain to the citizens why such a cataclysm is expected. For almost half a year, public organizations and parliament remained silent, as if nothing cannibalistic had been planned in the country. It was only by July 1 that the country woke up when the regions calculated how extortionate payments under the new tariffs would be and how many people could handle them. The outrage on the ground began to break through into the sphere of big politics.
The new tariffs shocked the province. Their maximum increase is expected in Kuzbass (19.8%), Arkhangelsk Region (20%) and Perm Krai (21.1%). In the capital, the growth will be up to 15%, and in St. Petersburg – up to 14.6%. Citizens have not yet received the relevant payments, but they would really like to understand why the numbers have grown so much.
Government sources record some nervousness in the corridors of the executive branch. If earlier the parliament’s intentions to deal with the growing appetites of communal bosses were simply blocked, now the top seems to be really afraid that they have gone too far. The State Duma, they say, has been given the command to initiate inspections, albeit with great delay. Even in the case of negative results for utilities, it will be difficult to cancel the cannibalistic tariffs. It will take weeks or months until the deputy’s request is sent to the Federal Antimonopoly Service, until it sends a response to the State Duma, until the servants of the people analyze the data received. Meanwhile, prices for housing and communal services will rise according to the established percentages. Citizens will be robbed, and of course no one will return the money to them.
And then one question arises. Even if the Federal Antimonopoly Service miraculously recognizes the unreasonableness of tariffs for housing and communal services, does the State Duma have enough authority to change something in them? Doubtful. After all, this area is in the sphere of activity of the subjects of the Federation. But then we must talk about the capacity of the lower house of parliament, which is unable to answer key issues of social policy.
Alexey Vorobyov.
Photo: Pixabay.com
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