Belarusians Receive January Bills and Are Surprised with the Amounts

Why such amounts?

Belarusians started receiving bills for housing and communal services consumed in January. And although not everyone has received it yet, the ERIP has already set out the amounts to be paid, and tenants have questions. The main one is why the amounts turned out to be much higher than in December. For some, the difference exceeds 30%.

The tut.by portal tells why the bills in January were higher than in December.

There are two main reasons why bills are "heavy." The first is a cold winter, which is why utilities spend more Giga calories of heat on heating houses. For example, in the Minsk "small family apartment" of 21 square meters, 0.6138 Gcal were spent on heating in January, for which 12.66 rubles must be paid. In December last year - 0.5169 Gcal and 10.66 rubles. The difference is exactly 2 rubles. At the same time, the tariff was the same both in January and in December - 20.6216 rubles per Gcal (it affects both heating and water heating).

For comparison: in January 2020, when the winter was warm, heating the same apartment required 0.4846 Gcal, which cost 8.96 rubles (then the tariff was 18.4831 rubles per Gcal).

In another apartment in Minsk - in a spacious two-bedroom apartment of 77 square meters - in January, heating "tightened" by 23.56 rubles, and in December - by 20.46 rubles. The difference is 3.1 rubles. For comparison: in warm January 2020, they paid 14.87 rubles for heating this apartment (but the tariff was then 11.6% lower than in January of this year).

In the Minsk three-bedroom apartment of 75 square meters for January, you have to pay 30.08 rubles for heating, and, in December, it was 15.66 rubles. The difference is 14.42 rubles. "The difference is almost 2 times, but I can't say that it is much heated," the owner of the apartment specifies.

The second reason that bills in January are higher than in December is the increase in tariffs for many housing and communal services from this year. In Minsk, since January 1, cold water has risen in price by almost 4.9%, sewerage - by almost 5%, garbage disposal - by 10.6%, maintenance - by almost 11.4%, and capital repairs - by almost 39%.

At the same time, heating and hot water did not rise in price in January; tariffs for them will increase from June 1, as in the previous year.

As a reminder, since January 1, electricity tariffs have also increased - both for those who have gas stoves installed and for those who have electric ones. The growth averaged about 10%. The tariffs for heating housing have also increased, and they will also increase from June 1.