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Belarus to increase public service tariffs by 10-26 percent from Sept 1

The payment for technical maintenance of apartment houses and communal services will be increased by 10 to 26 percent

MINSK, August 31 (Itar-Tass) — Belarus has made a decision to raise tariffs for several kinds of public services.

Proceeding from the Belarusian Council of Ministers’ instruction, which was published here on Wednesday, the payment for technical maintenance of apartment houses and communal services will be increased by 10 to 26 percent in the republic starting from September 1, 2011.

Under the document, charges for the technical maintenance of apartment houses will be increased by ten percent, as compared to the current indicator, and will reach 340 Belarusian roubles (about 0.07 U.S. dollars) per a square metre of the total area of a flat or house.

Besides, tariffs for cold-water supply will go up by 25.1 percent to 585 Belarusian roubles (0.11 U.S. dollars) per a cubic metre, as well as sewerage charges will be increased by 26 percent as compared to the current indices to total 305 Belarusian roubles per a cubic metre, the document wrote. In addition, a monthly fee for the use of an elevator will go up by 19.6 percent to 1,700 Belarusian roubles per a resident, the Council of Ministers wrote in the instruction.

At the beginning of August 2011, the government has already raised tariffs for heating supply and natural gas for the population.

The republican authorities repeatedly said that the population pay only 22-23 percent of the total cost of the public and communal services, stressing that the growth of public service tariffs for the country’s population should make up 30 percent before the end of the year.