Konstantin Tsitsin: “Tatarstan is one of the best regions of Russia in the implementation of Federal Law No.185 FZ”.

The Republic of Tatarstan shows one of the best in Russia experiences of Federal Law No.185 FZ “On Fund Assisting the Restructuring of Housing and Public Utilities”. This was announced today by Director General of the Fund at the expanded meeting of the Collegium of the Ministry of Construction, Architecture and Housing of the Republic chaired by Prime Minister of Tatarstan Ildar Khalikov.

In his opening speech, Ildar Khalikov thanked the Fund of and personally its leader for the opportunities Tatarstan had received in the field of modernization of housing and public utilities. According to Ildar Khalikov, major repairs of apartment buildings brought great economic and social benefit. The renovated houses increased energy efficiency and capitalization, and decreased utility bills, which is particularly important for the poor.

Among the challenges currently facing Tatarstan, Ildar Khalikov noted the creation of a regional fund for major repairs, the implementation of the target program on the resettlement from damaged houses.

Minister of Construction, Architecture and Housing of Tatarstan Irek Faizullin reported that over the period of the operation of the Fund Tatarstan had received 11,423,000,000 rubles. During this period, with the co-financing by the Republic, municipalities and the population, 10,933 houses were repaired and damaged houses with a total area of ​​71,600 square meters were resettled.

Currently, according to the Minister, the Republic together with the Fund begins a new phase of the resettlement program. Until the end of 2017 all the housing stock recognized as failing is to be resettled before January 1st, 2012 - in Tatarstan these are 1,688 houses with a total area of ​​420,000 square meters, inhabited by 28,000 people.

Irek Faizullin reported that the total volume of capital investments in the modernization of housing and communal infrastructure in 2013 in Tatarstan amounted to 9.4 billion rubles. 823 residential houses inhabited by 234,000 people were repaired under the program on major repairs.  

The Head of the Ministry of Construction of the Republic also noted a number of challenges facing the housing sector of Tatarstan. This, in particular, is the worn-out state of the utilities, the complete modernization of which will require about 100 billion rubles.

Director General of the Fund Konstantin Tsitsin called Tatarstan one of the best regions of Russia in the implementation of Federal Law No.185 FZ. “We do not have a lot of such experience in Russia. Problems throughout Russia are the same, but in Tatarstan they can be addressed, and in some other regions they cannot”, stated Konstantin Tsitsin.

Konstantin Tsitsin stressed the magnitude of the program implemented in Tatarstan. “Over all the time of the operation of the Fund more than 38 billion were used for major repairs and resettlement of emergency housing in Tatarstan. It is much even by the standards of the federal budget. And given the fact that this issue was not solved for a long time, there was a very significant breakthrough”, said Konstantin Tsitsin.

At the same time, according to Konstantin Tsitsin, Tatarstan has not achieved complete success in all the areas. There are still some management companies and HOA which do not disclose their financial statements. “The performance increases - from 40% to 72 %, but not to 100%”, said Konstantin Tsitsin. However, this problem occurs generally throughout Russia.

According to the Head of the Fund, Tatarstan experience in financing the program on major repairs with the active involvement of public funds proves the effectiveness of this model, which is to be used throughout Russia by creating regional funds for major repairs. “The main thing is that people see the result”, said Konstantin Tsitsin.

Speaking about the program on the resettlement of the failing housing stock, Konstantin Tsitsin acknowledged that it would be difficult to implement. The total amount of the program in Tatarstan will be 9.4 billion rubles, including those of the Fund in the amount of 4.3 billion rubles.  “This is a difficult program in terms of co-financing, but the Russian government understands the problem, and whenever possible, the proportion will be reduced”, Konstantin Tsitsin. “Anyway, we have to solve this problem. Therefore, I ask for a very careful approach to the financing of the program. It is necessary to combine the budgetary and extra-budgetary resources and to find some new forms”, he added.

At the end of his speech, Konstantin Tsitsin handed over to Ildar Khalikov a billing document certifying the receipt by Tatarstan of the first tranche of the funds allocated to the implementation of the program in 2014.

Prime Minister of Tatarstan Ildar Khalikov, summing up the meeting, drew attention to the issue of collection of payments from the population. “The main issue is the discipline of payments. It is not possible to implement any programs without it. And if the year of 2012 was the best in fundraising, in 2013 a number of areas allowed the reduction of the achieved indicators. At the same time there are areas which for the past two years provide 100 percent collection of utility bills”, said Ildar Khalikov. Separately, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan drew attention to the need for the timely payment of supplied utility resources by management companies and HOA. At the end of the meeting Ildar Khalikov thanked Konstantin Tsitsin for the active cooperation of the Fund and expressed confidence in further effective collaboration.