Housing reform in Moscow

Moscow deputies are adjusting utility reform
New elections to the Moscow City Duma are scheduled for December 1997. It is not surprising that some of the Duma members decided not to postpone the decision of their political fate to the last minute and begin pre-election warm-ups in the summer. Members of the United Democrats - Democratic Choice of Russia faction held public parliamentary hearings on the problems of utility reform yesterday in the capital's mayor's office.

From the very beginning of the hearings, it became clear that the main addressee of the deputies’ election campaign was the low-income population. The deputies who spoke emphasized in every possible way that during the housing and communal services reform they are ready to protect the interests of “ordinary citizens.” Some of the deputies even spoke out in the spirit of Gianni Rodari’s characters: “Let the rich cry,” advocating the introduction of a differentiated housing payment system, where the main criterion would be the level of income of the payers. The deputies admitted their own mistakes (it was the Duma that approved the increase in utility tariffs), assured future voters of their loyalty, promising not to raise tariffs in the next three years (naturally, if they were re-elected), and also criticized the Russian government as the main ideologist of the “shock therapy" during the reform. The only participant in the events who did not come under fire was the Moscow government. As a result, its representatives still managed to convince those gathered of the need to increase tariffs, albeit more gradually than the federal program.
Let us remind you that a program for a new stage of reform of utility bills is about to begin in Moscow. According to this program, for those whose living area is more than 7 square meters. m exceeds the norm according to existing social standards (for example, for families of three or more people this standard is 18 sq. m per person, for single people - 40 sq. m), double tariffs for utilities are introduced. And owners of two or more apartments, according to the program, will have to pay 100% of the costs of maintaining and maintaining their housing, and the 100% tariff will apply to all of their apartments.

DMITRY Kommersant-VORONIN

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 106 dated 07/09/1997, p. 2