Аннотация: Furgal, Novak, Degtyarev and tariffs for the Khabarovsk Krai and for the Far East. August 1, 2020. The ultra-quick overview.
Furgal, Novak, Degtyarev and tariffs for the Khabarovsk Krai and for the Far East. August 1, 2020. The ultra-quick overview.
Let's take the meeting between Alexander Novak and Mikhail Degtyarev at the airport on the night of July 25, 2020 as the starting point of our reflections.
We assume that the issue of tariffs was mentioned at this meeting.
However, in all the materials we met describing this meeting, the issue of tariffs is not mentioned.
So, tariffs and their role for life and the future of the Khabarovsk Krai.
If you try to navigate this topic by familiarizing yourself with the websites of large official organizations, then you will be disappointed. The information is presented in such a way that it is impossible to form a coherent opinion.
But we came across information from the times of Sergei Furgal (2019), where the question is stated coherently and clearly.
The crux of the problem is that the tariffs are such that the population cannot pay for utilities, is entangled in debts and leaves for other regions ... (Is it easier there?).
Here is how the situation of the times of Sergei Furgal is described in one of the materials.
'1 July 2019, 12:03
(...)
In the Nikolaev district, the increase in the electricity tariff from July 1 is enormous: from 5 to 9 rubles at once. Should we expect another wave of liquidations of small businesses?
For the population, the growth from July 1 will be: for electricity from 4.51 rubles to 4.55 rubles. In rural areas, the tariff will also grow by 4 kopecks, but it is lower than in urban areas: 3.19.
Heat charges will increase by 2.4%, the same for hot water supply. In the Nikolaev district, due to the high cost of cold water, the tariff will increase by 7.2%. Gas will rise in price by 2.4%.
The population's debts for housing and communal services are growing day by day in proportion to the closure of small businesses, cuts in large city-forming industries, an increase in unemployment - an increase in April 2019 was 10.4%. In the city of Khabarovsk alone, the debts of the population for consumed housing services are about 2 billion rubles.
The situation is only getting worse. Moreover, not only people, but entire municipalities are already driven into communal debts. The most incredible thing is that this was done through the efforts of the Krai authorities. 9 northern districts of the Krai today cannot count on the successful passage of the next heating season. The Krai government avoids paying for the fuel delivered by OOO Flagman [private company] as part of the northern delivery of fuel. The total debt is 770 million rubles. The entrepreneur goes to the Arbitration Court and wins. One of the "northerners" - the Sovetsko-Gavanskoye municipal district, had accounts arrested.
The regional prosecutor's office officially announced that the heating season in this municipality could be disrupted ...
The population of the Khabarovsk Krai, unable to withstand the high cost of living, primarily housing and communal services, is melting, before our eyes. As you know, in 2018 alone, the population [of the Khabarovsk Krai] decreased by 7,000 people. Thus, the number of consumers of housing and communal services decreased by 7000. But the capacities (boiler houses) remained the same. The region is close to a situation where those who remain will pay for those who leave. Kamchatka has already faced such a situation, where in the northern regions, in half-empty villages, you have to pay about 18 thousand rubles a month for a standard one-room apartment (flat). And this is not the limit.
Necessarily in the current situation in the region a "communal" [services] will rise in price again and again. The main share of the cost falls on thermal energy - heating. " (https://vostokmedia.com/article/general/01-07-2019/tarify-na-uslugi-zhkh-v-habarovskom-krae-vyrosli-vtoroy-raz-za-god).
Did Sergei Furgal meet with Alexander Novak? He, Furgal, could not but meet and talk ...
We have reliable information about the participation of Alexander Novak in a meeting on the situation in Transbaikalia on July 24, 2020 (on electricity tariffs), on his meeting with Mikhail Degtyarev on the night of July 25, 2020, and on measures to resolve the issue of electricity tariffs (for Transbaikalia).
In the most concise presentation, the situation looks like this.
Alexander Novak discusses several topics. Among the main ones:
1) Modernization, renovation (repair), new construction in the energy sector. Proposals are submitted by major energy companies. Novak hears all this with a thoughtful look and, on the whole, approves. Who will protest against the renovation (repair) and modernization?
(To protest, you need a huge knowledge. But not only a great knowledge. You need romanticism, disinterestedness (lack of greed), the character of a knight of revolution, also - the employees of VChK [All-Russian Extraordinary Commission] in subjection ... The monument was not accidentally dismantled ... If all of the above is not available, then it is not easy to object ...). (Perhaps Senate commissions and independent prosecutors can be effective - as it is organized in the United States.)
Together with the renovation and modernization, new construction projects are being prepared - a one broth in one pot under one lid (in the large energy kitchen). The proposals are generally approved. THUS, TARIFFS ARE DIRECTLY AND INDIRECTLY JUSTIFIED, APPROVED.
2) The question of too high tariffs. The situation is more complicated here. It is not easy to understand who is making proposals to reduce them. Perhaps this is done by the authorities of the subjects of the federation. Novak hears all this with a thoughtful look and, on the whole, approves. Further - everything is much more complicated. 'Chita. July 27 [2020]. INTERFAX - The assessment of the situation with energy tariffs in the Trans-Baikal Krai, to which Energy Minister Alexander Novak drew attention during his working trip to the region, will be carried out by a special working group of representatives of the interested ministries.
"Following the meeting with the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation - Plenipotentiary in the Far Eastern Federal District, Yuri Trutnev, it was decided to form a working group to analyze, assess the structure, cost of electricity tariffs, as well as other regulated activities in the Trans-Baikal Krai," a source told Interfax one of the departments.
The group will be formed by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) from candidates from the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Eastern Development and the Government of the Trans-Baikal Krai.
Each ministry will send its proposals aimed at reducing (leveling) energy tariffs in the Trans-Baikal Krai to a level not higher than energy tariffs in neighboring regions. " (https://www.interfax-russia.ru/far-east/news/fas-sformiruet-rabochuyu-gruppu-dlya-ocenki-energotarifov-v-zabaykale-istochnik)
The difference in the two situations (A. a cost approval [an approval of spending] and B. a tariff reduction approval) is obvious. In the first case, it is enough to approve, and everything rolls along a knurled track (the population is impoverishing and is scattering). In the second case, the efforts of the hero of ancient Greek myths Sisyphus are needed to achieve results ... Where can we find him, this Sisyphus? ...
In none of the materials that we read in the preparation of this essay, we did not come across a mention of a fact that had been encountered in some materials earlier, a fact whose reliability we cannot guarantee, but which seems very plausible to us, that there is an excess of generating capacities in the Far East. If surplus is a reality, why then the new construction of new energy facilities? Why entangle the population with new payments and new debts? ...
The development strategy of the Far East is not an easy thing ... Sergei Furgal and Mikhail Degtyarev may have understood this ...
August 1, 2020 19:17
Translation from Russian into English: August 2, 2020 15:21.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Фургал, Новак, Дегтярев и тарифы для Хабаровского края и Дальнего Востока. 1 августа 2020 г. Сверхкраткий обзор'.