‘These Tariffs Are Off Charts!’

The father of two children received a utility bill and sharply criticized the system.

In Belarus, housing and communal services tariffs increased at the beginning of 2024. People have already begun to receive huge utility bills.

The “social parasites” were the first to suffer. Some payments exceeded 300 rubles ($90). The website Charter97.org spoke with a Hrodna resident on condition of anonymity. He lives in a two-room apartment with his wife and two children:

— The other day we also received a utility bill with a figure of 180 rubles ($90). This is a third of my salary, and yet I still have to feed my family. My wife and youngest daughter are on maternity leave.

The numbers are off the charts, but there are many questions about the quality of the water. Brown sludge often comes out of the tap. This is some kind of communal collapse!

If you look at the utility bills that were there three years ago, you can see that they have tripled. I understand that by raising prices, Lukashists are patching holes in the economy. They even ride out on the backs of ordinary Belarusians.

I have friends who inherited an apartment and they rent it out. So, the utilities even exceed the rental amount.

They are still attached to the “parasites”, but these may be people of pre-retirement age, for whom it is difficult to find a job. Plus, many of my friends go to work abroad. They have a hard time living in constant travel, but they also want to skin them three times over for utilities.

— At the beginning of February, the Ministry of Internal Affairs proposed to return the article for “parasitism” to the Criminal Code of Belarus. How do you feel about this initiative?

— Crazy idea! A relic of the USSR, and we already live in the 21st century, when a freelancing system has been developed, where a person may not be tied to one permanent job. Throughout the civilized world this is normal practice now. Freelancers are not “parasites”. They pay taxes when buying food and goods in stores. Punishing them, forcing them to work in a factory is simply nonsense.

The authorities lack workers in low-paid positions, as well as doctors and teachers, but they need to attract them with good salaries, not threats.

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