Kazakh Prime Minister urges to establish special control in tariff policy
ASTANA. October 1. KAZINFORM Today, the Government of Kazakhstan has reviewed and approved approaches to improve tariff policy at the regular session chaired by Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov, Kazinform refers to primeminister.kz.
Akhmetov emphasized the social importance of the discussed topic and said that the issues of improving the system of tariff regulation were under the special supervision of the Head of State. He also noted the need to pay attention to all the factors relating to the tariff increase. The issue of use of funds by monopolists has to be under strict control.
Chairman of the Agency for Regulation of Natural Monopolies Murat Ospanov delivered a report on the issues of tariff regulation.
According to him, "in 2012, investment in the regulated industries amounted to 208.8 billion tenge exceeding the level of 2011 by 46%. In 2013 it is planned to attract investment at the level of 230 billion tenge," he said.
According to him, each monopoly supplier has to increase investment, develop and implement investment programs aimed at reducing depreciation, standard losses, fuel consumption and equipment energy efficiency.
The detailed information about the investment programs of all monopolies and reports on their performance is available on the agency's website.
Energy saving measures in the housing and communal sector allowed to stop the increase in tariffs and save 7.3 billion tenge of consumers' money, Murat Ospanov stated.
He also said that in order to effectively implement investment programs, control over monopolies has been intensified, including through a system of public monitoring. 284 inspections have been conducted this year. The total amount of fines amounted to 3.1 billion tenge.
In addition, Minister of Economy and Budget Planning Yerbolat Dossayev told about tariff regulation of natural monopolies.
"A prerequisite for regulation and increase in tariffs is the presence of the investment program for the maintenance and renewal of equipment and networks. This is precisely the increase in efficiency, energy efficiency, improving the quality of services," the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan said. "Other reasons given by monopolies for the increase in tariffs are unacceptable," he emphasized.
"The current system of tariff regulation still has a number of very serious problems - the quality of services of monopolies, the system of money disbursement monitoring," Akhmetov said. He urged the Agency for Regulation of Natural Monopolies to establish a special control in this field, including "through public monitoring".
The agency was also instructed to "continue to work on the development and legislative approval of standards of quality and service in the provision of public utility services, establishment of indicators to reduce the wear and loss."