Starting from July 1, 2024, utility bills have been increased by 4-15%, depending on the region of the country. First of all, electricity, water, heating and gas have risen in price.
The last change in payments occurred on January 1, 2024. Then the rates for social rent and housing maintenance, as well as the capital repair fee, increased. Now the remaining figures should increase – for light, water, garbage collection, heat and gas. Most of all, the changes affected the residents of Transbaikalia, who will have to really fork out. For communal services, they will be asked to pay 15% more than in the previous year. But in Khakassia, utility tariffs have risen in price by only 4%.
In Moscow, payments increased by an average of 11%. The price of cold water has soared the most, for which they will ask 59.80 rubles per cubic meter, that is, 17.4% more than before. And for sewerage – 45.91 rubles, that is, plus 14.9%.
The cost of electricity has also increased quite a lot this year. In houses without electric stoves, you will have to pay 6.99 rubles per kWh (+8.7%), and if there is an electric stove – 6.15 (+8.7%). Tariffs for hot water increased slightly to 272.14 rubles per cubic meter (+11.9%). Central heating now costs 3,217.19 rubles per gigacalory (+10.5%). But the garbage collection fees were almost not affected by the changes. Muscovites paid 841.77 rubles, and from July 1, the tariff will be 846.43 rubles.
But the governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, announced a decision to cancel the planned increase in tariffs for heat supply, water supply and sanitation, as well as for the treatment of solid municipal waste. “The budget of St. Petersburg has exceeded a trillion rubles. This gives us the opportunity to allocate the necessary funds to compensate resource-supplying organizations. We will keep the tariffs at the existing level,” the governor explained.
Meanwhile, experts in the field of housing and communal services say that annual tariff increases are too small to update equipment and introduce new technologies in any way. “The annual increase in the tariff only allows us to maintain the current state of the infrastructure in a working condition. But it is not possible to talk about its complete renewal at the expense of the tariff due to the huge accumulated underfunding of the industry over the past decades,” explained the Russian Communal Systems group of companies.
According to Rosstat, the share of the emergency street water supply network is almost 44%. And sewer pipes, which require urgent replacement, reach 45% of the total length. In the field of heat supply, about 30% of the networks need to be changed.
“In recent years, not years, but decades, the deterioration of the entire communal infrastructure has been steadily growing. The reason is obvious – the extremely insufficient annual volume of network replacement. Instead of the normative 5 percent, 1-2 percent change, at best 3 percent,” Evgeny Blekh, professor at the Institute of Industry Management of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told reporters.
Experts propose to solve the problem by introducing differentiated tariffs, when the well-off population will pay more and the poor will pay less. “Everyone pays the same in our country now, that is, those who have a house for 400 square meters and a family who lives in 50 “squares,” says Natalia Trunova, auditor of the Accounting Chamber. Thus, in the near future, a methodology may appear that will be able to assess the ability of families to pay for housing and communal services. It will also allow you to support exactly those families who really need it.
Natalia Vladimirova
Photo: LEGION-MEDIA
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