04 February 2021, Thursday, 13:58 103

Tariffs For Heat And Water Established In 2020 Can Be Applied For Contracts With Consumers Drawn Up Under New Legislation - Regional Development Ministry

Редактор: Daria Zubkova

The Ministry of Community and Territorial Development states that the tariffs for heat and water supply, which were set in December 2020, can be applied to contracts with consumers that are drawn up in accordance with the new law on housing and utilities services after 2019.

This is stated in the response of the ministry to the request of Ukrainian News Agency.

"We would like to draw your attention to the fact that even with the establishment of new tariffs for services for the supply of heat energy and the supply of hot water in 2020 by local governments and the Energy Commission, which at the time of approval took into account the cost of natural gas at the level of UAH 4,048.5 per thousand cubic meters, heat supply companies cannot apply them in connection with the requirements of the Law of Ukraine dated March 30, 2020 No. 540-IX "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine aimed at providing additional social and economic guarantees in connection with the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID -19)", which are allowed to switch to new contracts for the provision of utilities, and, accordingly, apply new tariffs for utilities, five months after the end of the quarantine established by the Cabinet of Ministers. Thus, now most heat supply companies operate under the conditions of the old contracts for the provision of public services, which were concluded until May 1, 2019, and consumers are subject to tariffs for services for centralized heating and hot water supply, established by the relevant authorized body until May 1, 2019 (before the new law of Ukraine "On housing and utility services" comes into force)", the response reads.

It is noted that in the conditions of the functioning of the natural gas market, the cost of natural gas for heat supply enterprises changes monthly.

In this regard, in order to plan the costs of heat supply enterprises for the purchase of natural gas, which is taken into account in tariffs for thermal energy and, accordingly, tariffs for utilities, in July 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a resolution, according to which for the calculation of tariffs for thermal energy and the corresponding utilities are taken from the average price of natural gas, which was in effect in the last heating season.

For most heat supply companies, this price is UAH 4,048.5 per thousand cubic meters.

The Ministry of Regional Development emphasized that the average price of natural gas, which was in effect in the last heating season, is not a restriction for heat supply enterprises, but is provided solely for planning the cost of purchasing natural gas.

The ministry also recalled that from May 1, 2021, it is planned to transfer heat supply enterprises to market conditions for the purchase of natural gas.

In order to provide heat supply enterprises with natural gas for their economic activities after May 1, a working group created under the Ministry of Regional Development is developing proposals and recommendations for resolving problematic issues in the heat power industry, which will allow enterprises to become full-fledged participants in the natural gas market.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal stated that tariffs for heat and hot water would not change until the end of the heating season.

In December 2020, the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Utilities (Energy Commission) increased tariffs for heat production for 22 heat supply companies by 9.8-33.5% from 2021.