Dnipropetrovsk City Council has adopted moratorium on raising utility rates until January 1, 2017. The initiative of Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov was supported by 47 deputies during the eleventh ordinary session of the City Council on June, 13. The decision takes effect from the date of its official publication.
The Mayor of Dnipro has noted that this is a political decision.
“Our colleagues – the deputies of Kyiv City Council – have approved a relevant political decision. The situation is that the city authorities can hardly influence the utility rates or trash removal. Other tariffs are formed by the NEURC (National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission – Ed.) in a nontransparent way,” said Borys Filatov. He called on the other heads of communities and mayors to sign for a class action lawsuit against the NEURC demanding to bring utility rates to the level that people could pay for them. If the NEURC does not do it, Dnipro city authorities will resolve this problem, in particular, using municipal budget funds. “People cannot bear such a financial burden,” said Borys Filatov.
The Mayor has stressed that the first discussions about the initiative providing moratorium on raising utility rates began two months ago. Despite the fact that now some deputies are trying to get into this initiative, the most important thing is the result – ban on raising utility rates is adopted, said Borys Filatov.
The moratorium will be in effect until January 1, 2017. It means that until the beginning of the next year residential tariffs for electricity, heating, gas, hot and cold water and sanitation will not rise.
In addition, during a moratorium period, people will not get late payment penalties for the utility bills.
The draft decision of the City Council says that utility rates should be economically justified. The indexation of wages, pensions and minimum living wages according to the inflation rates are also needed. The execution of moratorium will be under personal control of the Mayor of Dnipro.
