New "Surprises" Prepared For Belarusian Public Utility Debtors
- 24.12.2021, 10:50
We are talking about tens of thousands of people.
Minister of Housing Andrei Khmel has told to the ONT channel about the methods of combating against non-payers of communal services. He also informed that there are not many debtors - "thousands, perhaps tens of thousands for millions of customer references in the country. The Minister also said that compared to the neighboring countries Belarus has the lowest cost of utility payments.
"We can, of course, cut off the supply of housing and communal services. We can shut off the sewerage system. If we shut off the sewerage ... But we have not resorted to this in most cases. We apply it to persistent non-payers," said Khmel.
Minister of Housing noted that to date, the legislation provides for a lot of measures of responsibility for non-payers - up to closing the right to travel abroad.
"We give the data to the State Border Committee - and the person simply can't leave the country. This is stipulated by the law," he said.
He also said that there are few non-payers - "thousands, perhaps tens of thousands on millions of customer references in the country".
How do salaries and rents compare in Belarus and neighboring countries?
The minister also spoke about what part of the salary of the average Belarusian family pays for utilities, as well as the ratio in neighboring countries.
"There is such data. I regularly monitor these figures, I want to know where we are in comparison with our neighbors. We calculate as follows. These calculations are not approximate, they can be called accurate. We take a two-room apartment with three residents, but calculate that two of them work and receive the national average wage. Based on this calculation, the cost of utility bills in the budget of this family in Belarus is 4.5%. There is accurate data for the Russian Federation, it is about 10%. Ukraine today, not even today, taking the figures of October, before the rise in prices - 15-16%. This is not the cost of the service, but the ratio to income. The Baltic countries are approaching 20%. Yet it will be more interesting in the future".