Citizens of the Russian Federation will not pay for the installation of meters
At the end of 2017, information appeared in the Russian media about the consideration by the committees on natural resources and economic policy of an initiative to pay for the installation of water meters (hot and cold), gas, and electricity. At the meeting, the question was raised about who should pay the costs for installing metering devices: residents of apartment buildings or housing and communal services.
On the topic under discussion, a decision was put forward on the need to amend the Housing Code, which would determine the competence to install metering devices for companies providing utility services. The potential innovation was jointly supported by the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation.
Based on statistics, almost a third of citizens do not have individual meters in their apartments, which provokes the incurrence of additional costs in the form of a surcharge for the lack of meters.
To avoid these consequences, it is also planned to add to the legislative regulations a condition that customers of resource supply companies who do not have metering devices have the right, before installing them, to pay the utility burden at the average (basic) tariff.
As citizens rightly noted, the changes were planned too late, since the majority of the population had already spent money on meters out of their own pockets.