Ildar Khalikov: “The main task is to make our utilities the most effective in the Russian Federation”

2012 was not easy for the State Committee on Tariffs of the Republic of Tatarstan, because a number of important steps to improve the system of tariff regulation were implemented in the Republic. In particular, within the territory of the Republic of Tatarstan cross-subsidization was eliminated in the field of heat and water supply, sanitation and partly in power production.

In accordance with the Order of the President of Tatarstan to ease social tensions a number of decisions aimed at ensuring the social protection of the population has been adopted. This was announced today by Prime Minister of the Republic Ildar Khalikov summing up the results of Board of the State Committee on Tariffs of the Republic of Tatarstan.

The meeting summarized the work of the Committee in 2012 and the tasks for tariff policy in Tatarstan for the current year.

 As Ildar Khalikov noted the State Committee on Tariffs was perceived by many people as an entity which refers to energy production and housing and public utilities, since the population was mostly interested in these areas.

 “This is not the case. Many more tariffs being approved include health care, social services, and many other areas. The fact that we do not have the negative feedback or there is not so much of the latter, means that well-formed system work appeared in these areas. One of the main tasks of the Committee is to make such work appear in energy production and housing and public utilities”, said the Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan.

According to the report made by Chairman of the State Committee on Tariffs of the Republic of Tatarstan Marat Zaripov, when setting tariffs only economically justified costs of organizations are taken into account. Last year the total economic impact of the government regulation of tariffs (i.e. the difference between the proposals for tariffs submitted by the organization and the level approved by the State Committee) was about 14.5 billion rubles.

According to Marat Zaripov one of the key decisions of 2012 is the elimination of cross-subsidization in the combined generation of heat which was formed and worsened in the country yearly, because an annual increase of the cost of gas controlled the residential tariffs. In 2011 the total amount of the underpayment for the heat supply was about 4.5 billion rubles, and this load was given to the industry.

The elimination of cross-subsidization did not change tariffs for heat energy, only the redistribution among consumer groups took place. As a result, the heat tariffs for the population rose by more than 2 times.

According to Ildar Khalikov, in general, the trend of the recent years in terms of tariffs growth is encouraging. Last year it was not more than 13 percent, this year it should not be higher than 10 percent, and this trend must be preserved.

According to the Head of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic it is possible to achieve it by internal reserves in the housing sector. “We need to control every ruble approved by the investment program both at the level of municipalities and at the level of the Republic”, Ildar Khalikov.

Speaking about other tasks for 2013, the Prime Minister of Tatarstan said that Tatarstan needed to develop regional standard costs for power and other public utilities, to check the validity of the economic feasibility for heating network organizations and entities that provide water and sanitation services.