Belarus newspapers on utilities tariffs growth: press review
“It is important that the proclaimed tariff growth limitation has been implemented precisely”, writes in the first paragraph Sovietskaya Belorussia. The limitation is $5 per year, under the president’s order. But the year has just begun, and the limitation has already been exhausted. Will the government manage to keep its promise and not raise tariffs again throughout the year?
Narodnaya Gazeta assures readers that the government will keep its promise, because “there are no reasons to deviate from plans so far”.
“Housing officials maintain that this growth has been as a one-off thing in 2008”.
The Ministry for Housing and Communal Services has not held a news conference yet in this regard. Therefore, one can only guess whether this is the last growth of tariffs. Nobody knows the exact answer. Even a journalist writes in Sovietskaya Belorussia somewhat unconvincingly:
“It is very possible that the growth of utilities tariffs will be the last one this year”.
The title of this article sounds equally unconvincing: “Limit Exhausted?”
It is worth recalling that in late 2007 the Ministry of Economy stated that the utilities tariff growth in 2008 was forecasted around $20 for a two-bedroom apartment:
“So far, it is planned to raise utilities tariffs by $20. What actually happens will depend on the gas price for the next year we will manage to negotiate”, the web-based newspaper Salidarnac quotes Aliaksandr Matsyas, an expert from the Ministry of Economy as saying.
Economist Aliaksandr Chubryk from the Institute for Privatization and Management does not believe in the $5-limitl, either. He sad in an interview with Solidarnac that he trusted the calculations of the Ministry of Economy more:
“After Putin’s visit in Minsk and his decision to issue a state loan to Belarus, it is possible that the minister will have a more optimistic forecast. Yet, this is only a declaration. In reality, I think that the utilities tariff growth will run beyond this $5 limit. In this regard, I have a bigger trust to the calculations of the Ministry of Economy”.
According to the official data, Belarusians now cover 34 percent of housing and utilities costs. It was initially planned that households would start covering 100 percent of those costs beginning from 2015.
Gas tariffs have grown the most (almost as twice as much) among other communal services. Now we will pay $215 per 1000 cubic meters, while the government buys gas from Russia for $119.
“One can assume that higher tariffs for households intend to balance the risks of higher gas prices to be possible introduced by Russia”, writes Salidarnasc.
