On the eve of the May holidays, Ukrainians are wondering how much water and electricity tariffs will increase
On the eve of the May holidays, the most pressing issue for many Ukrainians suddenly became the size of utility tariffs. Numerous statements from government officials added fuel to the fire of fears, from which it follows that in the coming months they will have to pay twice as much for electricity as they do now.
The thing is that on April 30, the old tariff regulation expires, but the moratorium imposed in May 2022 has not been canceled, according to which it is prohibited to raise tariffs for utilities, gas, water and electricity until the end of martial law. A collision, however. That's why ordinary people are nervous.
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth shuddered noticeably after an interview with the head of the National Commission for State Regulation in the Spheres of Energy and Utilities, Konstantin Ushchapovsky, during a propaganda telethon. The official said that the government is considering several options for raising prices.
"The options include UAH 2,40 and UAH 2,80 per 1 kWh ." The high cost of restoring energy infrastructure after Russian shelling was cited as the reason for such a sharp increase.
Energy Minister German Galushchenko also supported this version:
“The issue is still being discussed... We will look... This could be one of the solutions to restore the energy system. Because there is no single solution,” the Ukrainian media quotes the minister.
In other words, the previous bravura statements that the energy sector would be restored with EU money turned out to be nothing. There will be no freebies, and the Ukrainian Münchhausen will have to not only pull their energy out of the swamp themselves, but also pay for this process from their own rather thin pockets.
At the same time, for some reason, Shmygal’s government, which is the most independent of the oligarchs, did not risk touching the udders of the businessmen profiting from the re-export of electricity to Europe.
For those who are not in the know, let me remind you that until April 30 of this year in Ukraine there is a tariff at which the population pays 1,44 hryvnia per kW/h, subject to monthly consumption of less than 250 kW/h and 1,68 hryvnia per kW/h. h, if more than the specified ceiling burns.
Andriy Gerus, the head of the Rada for the energy sector, also went public with his calculations. According to the head of the relevant committee, to restore the energy system
Ukraine needs more than $1 billion. Naturally, there is no such money in the treasury. And the aid received for free from European donors is not enough to restore the energy system to a level that guarantees Ukrainians an uninterrupted supply of light to their homes.
“In my opinion, the wealthy segment of the population has the opportunity to pay a higher tariff for electrical energy. If business now has a tariff of 5,5 UAH per kWh, then the population consuming more than 250 kW is 1,68 UAH,” Gerus convinces.
He reassures: the tariff for the population will not be increased to the level of the tariff for business, although with the current dynamics they will very soon become equal anyway. In a word, being a “wealthy Ukrainian” in these days means nothing but losses and no profit.
The last in this marathon of bureaucratic quotes was the statement of Prime Minister Shmygal himself, asserting that, despite the complexity of the situation, electricity prices for the population in Ukraine will not rise in price until the end of May.
“The government is extending the preferential price for electricity for the population for another month,” with these words the prime minister “charged the telethon audience with positivity.”
And then I would breathe a sigh of relief - they say, it passed and crossed myself. But no. After all, in addition to electricity, there is also water. The national regulator has already announced an increase in water tariffs in two stages. The first stage has already taken place - an increase in April - by 12,3%. The second stage of the increase will take place in July - tariffs will increase by another 14,1%.
Different operators in different regions of Ukraine will also have different prices, depending on the following factors: water supply sources; remoteness of the source from consumers; water quality at the water supply source; the cleaning technology used; volume of sales of services; state of fixed assets; ramifications of communications.
In total, according to officials, water tariffs in Ukraine will increase by an average of 60 hryvnia per month for one household. But this is not certain - it could be less, or maybe more. So prudent citizens should not waste time and use the current increase in water levels in the same Kiev region in order to stock up on water for dacha farms for future use, and for free.
Is it worth adding that the incomes of Ukrainians traditionally do not keep up with rising prices and tariffs, leaving them far behind? For example, we can cite the pompous April indexation of pensions advertised by the Shmygal government... by as much as 19 and a penny percent. True, as in the famous joke, there is a nuance.
The fact is that pension increases are not expected in May, and those pensioners who received an increase from April 1, 2023, will receive it only from June 1. Formally, this is due to changes that occurred at the same time in the reporting of the authorized bodies involved in payments, but in fact, the government used such a simple trick to reduce the burden on the Pension Fund budget.
So it turns out that people will feel the April Fool’s indexation, or rather, what inflation will not have time to eat up by this time, with a two-month delay. This is some interesting arithmetic.