Vice Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin told in an exclusive interview with PrimeMinister.kz about the extent to which tariffs for public utilities are reduced in the regions and in the whole country, as well as about the state's savings.

The vice minister noted that for implementing the Presidential instructions given at the Security Council meeting Nov. 7, 2018, comprehensive work was carried out for 40 days. Despite the fact that in the framework of the implementation of the tariff limit policy, there should have been an increase in the cost of tariffs, thanks to the measures taken, a reduction in the cost of utilities was achieved.

So, in November 2018, compensating tariffs were introduced, the total amount of which is 14 billion tenge. As the vice minister of national economy explained, the compensating tariff is made up of the amount that was used by the subjects of natural monopolies in a non-targeted manner.

“If a subject has misused his funds somewhere, we will withdraw these funds from the tariff, and, accordingly, the tariff will be reduced by this amount. A compensation period is selected when the entity needs to compensate this amount,” said Zhumangarin.

The vice minister explained that the reduction in tariffs would not have a negative impact on the quality of public services.

“There was a large influx of investment in the housing and utilities sector. More than 1 trillion tenge have already been attracted and these are all extra-budgetary sources. Not a single coin was has been spent from the budget. At the same time, the problem of reducing network wear was solved. Equipment wear was reduced by 1.5% for the first time,” the speaker said, noting that the greatest work was carried out in 2006 and 2008.

Separate work was carried out to reduce tariffs for both utilities and condominium services. The result is that in February, Kazakhstanis received receipts for utilities rendered in January, already at reduced tariffs. At the same time, consumers were provided with information indicating the cost of services before the decline (until Dec. 31, 2018) and after (from Jan. 1, 2019).

According to the vice minister, the largest amount among consumers goes beyond heating services. So as a results of the work, the 22% decline occurred in this area. Citizens will save about 6 billion tenge during the year.

“The largest check is issued for heat, the decline occurred, for example, in the Karaganda region from 2.7% to 22.2% in Shymkent. By water and sewage from 3% in Pavlodar region to 22.7% in Kyzylorda region. On water and sewage systems about 2 billion tenge will be saved, on gas supply, the total savings will be about 5 billion tenge — from 1.5% in the Kyzylorda region to 17.5% in the Almaty region. According to the electricity supply, the residents will save about 14.5 billion tenge: from 2.8% in Almaty to 18% in the Atyrau region,” Zhumangarin informed.

From the early 2019, taking into account the reduction in tariffs, the economy of the country's population will be almost 28 billion tenge, and taking into account what has been done before, almost 40 billion tenge will remain with consumers.

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