Will We Pay More Than 200% For Household Services?

What fold will the communal bills increase in actual fact?

The authorities are threatening once again with the full household service payment. And how much do we pay now? Belsat journalists have tried to answer this question.

We will compensate 100% of the communal costs, but not tomorrow. It is promised both by the ministers and Lukashenka.

For some reason, Belarusians take little stock in their words and ask the officials a question – aren’t we paying 200% for the communal costs already?

Belarusian apartments have been heated since the beginning of last week, in November, residents will start to pay "heavy" communal bills. And this is despite the fact that the citizens, according to Deputy Prime Minister Uladzimir Siamashka, compensate for less than 17% of the heat cost.

"16.8%. Divide 100% by 16.8, this is approximately by 6.5, 7 times – who can put up with raising this tariff by 6.5 times at a time now?" – Uladzimir Siamashka asks.

The vice-premier worries that the energy sector is going into the red, in response, the Belarusians ask to prove these figures.

"There is no complete economic calculation at all, what we are paying for. And that's why it's very difficult to say whether we pay 50% or 10%, maybe it’s 120%," – a Minsk resident says.

Not a six-fold one, but a noticeable increase in prices has already occurred twice this year: at the beginning of the year and from September 1. For example, the tariff for heat now is almost 17 rubles per gigacalorie. According to the payment slip of the past heating season, in order to warm a typical one-room apartment, almost a whole gigacalorie is needed for a month, that is, you have to pay 16.5 rubles, according to the new prices. With a 100% tariff, the heat in such an apartment would cost about 100 rubles.

"This is a non-transparent system, so we periodically hear that we pay more in one year, less – in the next one. Lukashenka has stated more than once that he does not know how much the population pays," – economic analyst Stanislau Ivashkevich notes.

The answer to the ruler can be found in the citizens’ payment slips. As it is written in September bills, the total compensation of communal expenses by Belarusians was 69%. Separate bills for electricity compensated for even more – 80% of the total cost, and from January 1, it will be 100. The question is: for which services precisely?

"In the Belarusian energy sector, about 30% of the costs are spent for maintenance. Belsat has conducted an investigation and found out that there are about a dozen private monopolists in this sector who overbill their services three to four times," – Stanislau Ivashkevich continues.

The government slurs over the issues of monopolization, artificial winding prices, and lack of competition. Lukashenka has hastened to distance from unpopular measures and shift it all over to the officials.

"We shouldn’t excite the public by talking about one hundred percent compensation for services literally from tomorrow. This is a political issue, too, haste is untenable here," – Lukashenka said.

This issue is primarily a political one. As the memories of spring protests are still fresh.

But the tariffs will increase. Both Lukashenka and Siamashka have made it quite clear.