The increase in utility tariffs in Belarus will be phased - A. Shagun

May 22, Minsk / Nadezhda Radivon - BELTA /. The increase in utility tariffs in Belarus will be gradual. This was announced by Deputy Minister of Housing and Communal Services of Belarus Anatoly Shagun today during an online conference "Housing and Communal Services: Services, Tariffs, Quality" on the BELTA website. The program of socio-economic development provides for reaching 60% of the population's reimbursement of costs for housing and communal services by 2015. Until full reimbursement, tariffs will primarily increase for services with low cost, such as housing stock maintenance, water supply, sewerage, waste removal, and elevator maintenance. "For heat supply, it will be quite difficult for us to reach 100% reimbursement (this will require a significant tariff increase), and these 60% were calculated taking into account that heat supply in 2015 and beyond will still be subsidized from the budget in the housing and communal services sector," noted Anatoly Shagun. He believes that improving the tariff policy will contribute to the development of competition in the housing and communal services market. So far, private enterprises have not shown much activity in this regard. -0-