Has payment of water by a meter in Russia accidentally changed its formula several times over the past 5 years? The latest version of the Decree of the Government of Russia No. 354 dated 05/05/2011 came to the greatest extent closer to the optimal search option, how to pay for water by the meter. However, you can be sure that this is not the end point in finding a solution, because the problematic nature of this area is obvious.
Option of tariff policy from a professional
According to Elena Dovlatova, director of the Association of Water Disposal and Water Supply, the point is not to come up with formulas. Indeed, it is possible to infinitely "improve" the mechanism of additional accrual to residents of the country of system costs generated by imperfection of networks. It is much more advisable at first to invest real money in the water supply sector, and then to begin to improve.
In her opinion, the existing water tariffs are insufficient for this, as the main investment resource (in Moscow, a cubic meter of cold water costs 28 rubles 40 kopecks, hot - 125 rubles 59 kopecks). Funds can be received after raising water prices for the population and enterprises to pan-European. What kind of price increase are we talking about? About two - two and a half times: the price range for cold water in Europe: from 1.5 to 2 euros per cubic meter (from 61.5 to 82 rubles).
However, doubts arise here: does the executive director really mean all of Russia? After all, the country is great, say, in the Stavropol region, the price of water is one and a half times higher.
"Water" polemic
Before paying for an individual water meter for the whole country, Elena Vladimirovna believes, it is necessary to really carry out renovation, "cleansing" the problems of social policy, forcing current users to "pay for the past." If the system is to be tackled, she believes, then it will take 3 years to construct the treatment facilities, and the sanitation of pipes will also take a reasonable amount of time. However, there are other opinions. Sergey Finayev, editor-in-chief of the Water Supply and Sewerage publication, is opposing her, recalling that Mosvodokanal’s profit in 2010 was no less, but 4 billion rubles. Since this public coverage of this information caused a wave of criticism in its time, since then the profitability of economic activities of the Mosvodokanal has been hushed up.
Associate Professor of MSTU Baumana Hovhannes, in turn, expresses sarcasm, considering the “water business” profitable, and sees the key to how to pay for water on the meter in the fact that water utilities in the personnel policy do not focus on managers, but on specialists and shift the emphasis from financial flows to water. However, a polemic without practical consequences is, by and large, not of interest to society.
Payment for water from a consumer point of view
If you do not have meters, then you pay for water, guided by the norm of its consumption per person. For Moscow, it is 6.381 cubic meters for cold water and 4.366 cubic meters for hot water. If the water consumer installs the meters, then “suddenly” it turns out that its consumption is half as much.
How to pay for water on the meter? In the vast majority of cases, this is a drum type measuring device. On it, cubic meters of used water are displayed on an accrual basis in the first four to five slots, painted black. Red slots show decimal fractions, respectively. The procedure for the transfer of such testimonies in cubic meters is specified in sub-clause “c” of clause 34 of Decree 354. The time for taking the testimony is declared: from the 23rd to the 25th day of the month. It is possible to transmit indications of individual meters of water accounting (ISP) on the 26th day inclusively. If the consumer of the service has not passed the testimony, then according to paragraph 59 he will be charged with the average monthly testimony.
In the event that water is supplied to the apartment through several risers, accordingly, several meters are installed in it, and their indicators are added up.
The consumer transfers the result of the summation either to the accounting department of the management company, or to a settlement center.
Further, based on the data submitted by the user, the accounts of the management company accrue the debt of the client. It is carried out according to the formulas of Decree 354 and is displayed in the receipt sent to it at the home address, and in fact - the invoice for payment.
Prices for water use
Water supply prices in Russia have a steady upward trend. According to the corresponding Federal Service, starting from July 2014, based on the forecast inflation rate of 6%, water tariffs will increase by 4.2% (the indicator was obtained by applying the coefficient 0.7 relevant for such calculations). In addition, since the summer of 2014, pilot projects will be launched in Russia at social prices for water supply related to water supply and sewage. The essence of this innovation is to outline the lower cost characteristics of the minimum required water consumption.
In addition, on the other hand, water tariffs for the population constitute compensation for their costs relative to water utilities. Structurally, these costs are 50% of the salaries of water workers, 20% are “pulled” by payments for electricity and supplies, 30% are the restoration and reconstruction of networks. Obviously, the increase in the specific gravity of this last component is borne in mind by Elena Dovlatova, when she offers to double water tariffs.
How to arrange the payment of water
A Russian consumer, having received a receipt – invoice from the management company for payment, may, say, notice that he transmitted information on the use of 15 cubic meters of water, and he was charged for 19. This situation is natural. The fact is that the user is also charged with the costs of the system. They normatively supplement the payment for water, but in fact the consumer’s expenses are added due to the following components:
- technological leaks of water in networks;
- its overspending in apartments without meters;
- unauthorized connections (watering the lawns, washing cars);
- leaks in the house system;
- through costs incurred by unaccounted temporary residents.
In this case, the common house water consumption indicator on the general meter (OPU) will record a significantly higher consumption than the sum of the indicators on the IPA of all residents (assuming that meters are installed in all apartments of the house). They are enshrined normatively in Resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation, which means that they are legalized under the generally accepted name “common house needs”. Accordingly, the methodology by which payment for water is calculated can be significantly complicated by various nuances. This happens if there are no prerequisites for the implementation of a unified accounting technology by citizens: some of the residents will install meters at home, some will not, and in addition, there will be families in the first group where the meters will break.
The real specific gravity of the "loss" of water
Unfortunately, in assessing the effectiveness of water supply, you should not rely on public information. Declarative reports of non-production water losses in the country record the proportion of losses to the total water volume of 18–19%. However, according to experts, they are significantly larger. The general director of the Moscow LLC Ecotech, Lev Skvortsov, claims that he personally, with the help of German special equipment, established the real share of losses in Moscow's water supply - about 50%. After that, one journalist artistically defeated the payment of water: "Moscow is numb by tears, but it believes in management companies." Doesn’t it, echoes the “pearl” that our best friend is a house manager?
Achilles heel in charge of water
Traditionally, the weakness of the algorithm for determining the consumer payment for water supply is considered to be the distribution mechanism of common house needs. The imperfection of his plan, as well as the problems in implementation, were always present. For example, the previous Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 307 of 23. 05. 2006 was less complete than the current one. The following examples show this.
The direction of the “bias” in the payment of water costs towards “the owners of the meters / not using them” depended on a coefficient that determines the ratio of the actual reading of the common house meter to the normally charged expense.
Balance of interests problem
So, we begin our reasoning. Initial conditions: the water tariff for the meter is equal to the rate for those who hand over the standards. In the event that the actual expenses prevailed and, accordingly, the coefficient exceeded one, the expenditures of IPU owners were multiplied by a coefficient exceeding unity. Thus, in fact, under these circumstances, they paid the expenses of residents who did not have meters installed.
If this coefficient turned out to be less than unity, then to determine the amount payable to IPU owners, their testimony will be further reduced by multiplying by a number less than 1, thus, common house needs were paid by residents who do not have meters.
Thus, judging by these simple arguments, in the light of Decree 307, the payment of water for the meter turned out to be largely deformed. The receipt sent to the consumer invariably testified to the uneven distribution among the residents of the non-technological over-expenditure of water.
A new look at common house needs?
The presence of unproductive water consumption in the current formula is obvious. However, according to experts, the new algorithm overcame the “roughness” of the redistribution between the owners of meters and refuseniks from them in an original way. He introduced a fundamentally new way to tariffs for water for the population by correlating the area of the apartment with communal needs. Who has more spacious "penates", he gets a large share of non-production costs of water. True, the very nature of this ratio “area / consumption” looks rather mysterious. But ... the norm is the norm.
Formula for determining common house needs for cold-water supply of i-th apartment
Decree of the Government of Russia No. 354 dated 06. 05. 2011 brought into force a new formula (1), which determines the payment of cold water by the meter in terms of general house charges imputed to the user.
V i od 1 = (V d - Σ V u tender - Σ V v dwg - Σ V w dwp - Σ V i dd - V cr ) * S i / S o (1)
uvwi where:
- V d - the volume of cold water used during the reporting period, determined using collective waste management. If the meter breaks down, provided for in "Clause 59" of the Regulation, utility charges are made based on average monthly consumption;
- V u nezh - the volume of used cold water in the u-th non-residential apartment in relation to paragraph 43 of the Regulation;
- V v living n - the volume of used cold water in the v-th apartment, not equipped with ISP;
- V w housing - the volume of used cold water in the w-th apartment, equipped with ISP. If the meter breaks down, provided for in "Clause 59" of the Regulation, utility charges are made based on average monthly consumption;
- V i onwards - the volume of hot water supply of the i-th residential or non-residential premises by self-heating (if there is no centralized hot water supply) used in the billing period, is determined accordingly by paragraphs. 42 and 43 of the Regulations;
- V kr is the volume of the cold-water-cooled circulated by heating when the consumer independently organizes individual heating, respectively, paragraph 54 of the Regulation;
- S i is the area of the i-th apartment;
- S o - the total area of the apartments of the house.
However, the payment of hot water on the meter is regulated in a similar way, as, however, in the absence of it. We are talking about the principle of adjusting the relative area of the apartment, as mentioned above.
Formula for determining common house needs for hot water supply of the i-th apartment
The same Decree (No. 354 dated 05/06/2011) also imputed to use an updated formula that is relevant for residents of apartment buildings when calculating the share of common DHW costs (formula 2).
V i od 2 = (V d - Σ V u tender - Σ V v living n - Σ V w living n - V cr ) * S i / S o (2)
Its content is completely analogous to the previous formula for the redistribution of non-production costs of cold water: the hot water tariff for the meter, as well as in its absence, is supplemented by the redistribution of common house needs on the basis of the specific living area of the apartment.
The nuances of water charges by residents
There are situations when conscientious payers, residents of an apartment building are forced to pay excess funds. Often the reason for such circumstances is the presence of unaccounted tenants in another apartment - with an unidentified ISP. There are even situations where among people living in an apartment, the number of unregistered exceeds the number recorded. How to be in this situation? The overspending is correctly displayed by the common house counter and then displayed on receipts sent by the management company to other residents. You will not see clues to resolve this issue in Resolution 354.
In this situation, you will pay too much until you are active. The situation is resolved by drawing up the Act of Residence by the management company. At the same time, it is advisable to involve the local police in the inspection, based on his powers granted to him under the Code of Administrative Offenses of Russia - to draw up protocols for residence without registration.
Output
Analyzing the Russian innovations of recent years in improving the payment of the population for cold and hot water, the dynamics of this process are striking. The government is "developing" one by one formula that more equitably brings imputed costs to residents. However, this process, by definition, cannot be one hundred percent success. After all, the consequences are being optimized, instead of localizing and correcting the cause.
It is clear that the whole thing is in the factors generating the phenomenon of common house needs. Recall that these include water leaks in networks; its cost overrun in apartments where IPPs are not installed; unauthorized connections; house leaks; costs incurred by unaccounted tenants.
It is obvious that, nevertheless, more systematic views on the problem have the prospect, in particular, Elena Dovlatova, proposed by the executive director of the water supply association, to renovate through increasing tariffs. However, at the same time, all water companies should work according to a single strategic plan, avoiding the destructive and unpromising position of "profit accumulation" due to savings on capital investments. Also destructive is the policy of hushing up its profitability with water utilities, which, for example, Mosvodokanal demonstrates today.