UPDATE: Official: Russia stops power price differentiation talks indefinitely

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MOSCOW, Jan 23 (PRIME) -- The Russian government has stopped discussion of differentiation of electric power tariffs for households depending on consumption indefinitely, Ilya Dzhus, spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said on Wednesday after a meeting to discuss the issue.

“After a meeting chaired by Kozak, it was decided to stop the discussion of proposals on introduction of differentiated tariffs on electric power for households and on gradual cancellation of a decreasing coefficient for apartments with electric stoves and private houses indefinitely,” the official said.

He added that a return to the discussion is possible only after the financial consequences are clarified for all groups of population.

Business daily Kommersant reported that under a draft government order, the basic tariff would cover all consumers who use less than 300 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of power a month. Those who consume between 300 and 500 kWh will pay more per kilowatt and a full market price will be paid by those who use more than 500 kWh of power.

For some regions the upper threshold was to be raised to 700 kWh a month.

The measure was considered in 2018 but First Deputy Energy Minister Alexei Teksler sent a letter to the Economic Development Ministry in December, saying that the new tariffs can cause significant social consequences because of the other fiscal decisions approved earlier by the government, such as growth of value-added tax (VAT) and public utilities tariffs, and introduction of an income tax for the self-employed.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin is waiting for a consolidated position on the issue. “An expert-level discussion is held. We should first wait now for a consolidated position of the government. The Kremlin has nothing to say on the matter so far.”

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