MOSCOW, February 20 (Itar-Tass) — Since February 13 the Russian Public Chamber (PC) received 354 complaints from callers, when the Public Chamber opened a Help Telephone Line for citizens who protest against growing tariffs in the public utilities sector, the press service of the Public Chamber said on Monday. Most of the complaints were lodged by residents of the Moscow, Saratov, Rostov, Arkhangelsk, Altai regions and residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg, it said.
The main reason for the growth of tariffs is the higher cost of services for electricity and heat provision to common stairways, higher costs of technical maintenance of apartment blocks, growing heat consumption, critically low air temperatures and growing costs of intercom maintenance in the buildings.
Svetlana Razvorotneva, chairperson of the PC's commission for local governing and tariffs policies, said that the recent analysis proved that the population has no clear understanding of tariff formation, and that managing organizations lack transparency when filling bills for public utilities services provided.
Citizens who confronted problems connected with the public utilities bills have been instructed to dial 8-800-700-8-800 from 9.00 am until 6.00 pm Mondays - Fridays to lodge their complaints or report any other information.
The previous Help Line opened in fall of 2011 and drew more than 18,000 citizens whose complaints were analyzed with subsequent recommendations given to the government and the Ministry of Regional Development, the PC source said.