Special political vigilance: The secret of Ukraine's tariff map
Dmitry Gubin, journalist, Kharkov
They say that the heating season has begun in Ukraine. The heating season has begun or will begin - feel the batteries and, depending on this, choose the tense of the verb.
However, you will have to pay regardless of the tense of the verb. Moreover, at new tariffs, which are several times different from last winter. Toward more, of course.
A few days before the start of this very season, Vladimir Demchishin, Chairman of the National Commission for State Regulation in the Spheres of Energy and Utilities, commented on the increase in tariffs: “We understand perfectly well that these tariffs are significantly higher than those that were last year. This happened because the calculation methodology itself changed... Only due to changes in the methodology, tariffs doubled.”
The LIGABusinessInform agency provides a map of tariffs in Ukraine. It must be viewed with special political vigilance. So, the cheapest heat is in Ivano-Frankivsk (5,69 UAH/sq. m) and Lviv (6,08 UAH/sq. m). The most expensive is in Krivoy Rog (12,94 UAH/sq. m) and Kirovograd (12,35 UAH/sq. m). At the same time, Lugansk and Donetsk are also included in the map, their tariffs are “slightly above the average” for the country.
So, how will residents of Ukraine pay? Someone will tighten their belts and pay no matter what. For patriotic reasons or out of an old habit of not owing to the state... Whoever can will apply for subsidies and local benefits, and thus the state and territorial communities will have to pay off the heating networks. By the way, local authorities do not always reimburse utility companies on time.
However, the most widespread category that will appear among Ukrainian consumers of heat supply services are categorical non-payers. Many remembered the 90s, when tariffs were higher than salaries and pensions, but people were convinced not to pay. This was called in 1996 the “utility non-payment crisis.” Today, as then, it is almost impossible to turn off the heat to one apartment in an apartment building. And the psychology of these people is this: so what should I choose - not to eat or not to pay?
Of course, legal proceedings will begin regarding malicious non-payments, with attempts to describe and seize the modest belongings of defaulters for debts. But this is a slow process, and by the time the shipping season arrives, the heating season will come to an end.
By the way, when will the heating season end? After the elections or later? After all, everyone heard the words of Arseniy Yatsenyuk that heating should begin at “plus or minus eight degrees,” and no one understood what sign he meant. Maybe now, on the eve of the elections to the Verkhovna Rada, they will turn it on - and then, before severe frosts, they will turn it off... Moreover, why pay now?!
By the way, are your batteries at home and at work already hot, lukewarm or cold?
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