The government decided to raise gas tariffs for industrial consumers in 2022-24 faster than regular rates of three percent per year, Kommersant writes. So the authorities are going to finance the extended gasification program.
According to the new version of the social and economic forecast of the Ministry of Economic Development, in 2022, the wholesale gas tariff should grow by five percent, in 2023 and 2024 – by four percent. The previous version of the document provided for a standard increase in three percent.
Accelerated increase will not affect the population – for it, the price of gas in the next three years will grow for the same pace, that is, three percent. The publication notes the unusual measures to which the government went, since the growth of tariffs for gas was traditionally restrained by the authorities in any economic conditions.
The reason for the accelerated indexation in the forecast is not disclosed, but it may be in the desire of the state to shift on industrial consumers part of the costs of the Gasification program of households. With such an initiative in the spring, the State Council was performed.
Completion of gasification is expected to 2030. By this period of gas should be carried out to 83 percent of households. At the same time, the terms of the Program provide that its financing will not be carried out at the expense of the population.
According to analysts estimates, the additional revenue of Gazprom in the next three years can be about 80 billion rubles. In the same amount, incomes of independent miners may increase, whose supply volumes are comparable to Gazprom’s indicators.