United Russia will offer to connect gas at the expense of Gazprom • The Bell • RIMA

United Russia will offer to connect gas at the expense of Gazprom

United Russia will offer to shift all the costs of connecting the population to gas distribution networks to Gazprom, told two sources RBC. But the state-owned company will need compensation of 2 trillion rubles, which can be obtained through the issuance of "eternal" bonds.

Connecting households to gas at the expense of Gazprom will be proposed today by Secretary of the General Council of the party Andrey Turchak at a meeting on gasification of regions, the decision will be sent to the president and the government.

According to the interlocutors of the publication, Gazprom's expenses will be compensated by state support, but its format is still unknown. Options include a Mineral Extraction Tax (MET) exemption or the issuance of perpetual bonds.

The party's initiative is connected with the President's instruction to Gazprom, the government and regional authorities in June. President Putin instructed to find sources of financing to connect citizens to gas without attracting funds from the population. Representatives of the company and departments supported this proposal.
We are talking about significant funds: connecting to the network gas costs hundreds of thousands of rubles per household, and these costs are now borne by the population.
Gasification in Russia should take place in two stages: until 2024 and 2030, the president noted. And the share of gasification should grow from 70% to 83%.
In July, First Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrey Ivanov noted that Gazprom was preparing "perpetual" bonds to finance gasification. This method is a more likely tool to offset costs, since perpetual bonds in some cases can be considered a tool to raise capital and not increase debt, Vasily Tanurkov, director of the ACRA corporate ratings group, told RBC.
Given the total program budget of 2 trillion rubles, Gazprom's capital expenditures could increase by 150–200 billion rubles a year, Dmitry Marinchenko, senior director of the group for natural resources and commodities at Fitch, shared his calculations with the publication.