In Ukraine, where gas consumers were previously explained how to obtain paper payment receipts to apply for a subsidy, a few years ago they paid for gas using one payment. For some time now, Ukrainians have begun to get used to the fact that they need to pay for gas using two bills. However, now it turns out that there is a third payment for gas, writes GazPravda.
Many consumers still haven’t figured out what needs to be paid on the third bill. Where did the third gas payment come from, and who will need to be paid with it?
In short, since 2015, Ukraine began to move to market relations in the sphere of natural gas consumption. As a result of the introduction of market reforms, the cost of gas was divided into two components: gas supplies and its distribution.
Accordingly, since 2020, Ukrainians began to receive two payments: for gas supply (this is the actual cost of gas, which almost everyone now pays to Naftogaz) and for gas distribution (for its delivery to the homes of consumers, which are carried out by regional gas companies).
At the same time, fees for maintenance of in-house gas supply systems were excluded from gas distribution tariffs. Moreover, maintenance of in-house gas appliances and networks has disappeared from the responsibilities of regional gas companies distributing gas and delivering it directly to consumers’ homes.
Thus, today the regional gas service is responsible only for the pipes that supply gas directly to the house. But as soon as the gas pipe enters the house, it becomes the responsibility of the residents of this house. Moreover, as a rule, these residents are not professionals in the gas sector and have no idea how to cope with all this.
Therefore, residents need to enter into an agreement with specialists for the maintenance of this intra-household facility. And since the market gives them a choice, they can hire any company that has special permission to carry out such work to maintain their in-house network. That is, it does not have to be the native regional gas company, but maybe another contractor with whom the contract is concluded.
But in most cases, residents enter into an agreement on such services with the regional gas company. As they say, don’t go far. Moreover, professionals with many years of experience work there.
However, there are currently no tariffs for maintenance work on in-house networks. They should be installed and described in detail by NEURC, but now all this is only in the process. It is the National Commission that is developing a standard contract and tariffs for such maintenance.
While there are no typical contracts, many co-owners of apartment buildings have entered into temporary agreements with regional gas companies for the maintenance of intra-building networks. However, when NEURC develops a standard agreement and approves new tariffs, these temporary agreements will need to be concluded on a permanent basis based on the provisions of the new agreement and new tariffs.
In the meantime, gas consumers are paying the service company according to temporary tariffs. And the cost of such service is exactly in the third gas payment.
As FACTS wrote, earlier it was explained to Naftogaz clients where the amounts of their overpayments for gas went, and also why gas consumers were charged “extra cubic meters.”
Source: Fakty
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