The Federal Antimonopoly Service responds to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's statement Thursday.
"All the invoices should correspond strictly to the readings of meters so that citizens do not pay for more than they consume," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told a government meeting on Thursday that discussed, among other things, the problems facing the housing and utilities sector. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) directorate for Nizhny Novgorod Region declared the following day that the water management authority Nizhegorodsky Vodokanal was in breach of the "Law On Protecting Competition."
The decision was taken in response to complaints by 11 citizens of Nizhny Novgorod who had tried for several months, without success, to exercise their right to pay for water according to the meter readings and not according to imputed rates.
Vera Kotlova has been seeking to exercise her rights for several months. Early in the year, she had a cold water meter installed in her apartment in accordance with regulations. However, Nizhegorodsky Vodokanal refused to accept payments for the water according to the meter readings on the grounds that the apartment block does not have collective meters. Residents point out that Vodokanal's position runs counter to the Housing Code and many other regulations that prescribe that in the absence of a collective meter, payments should be accepted according to individual readings.
Vera Kotlova's complaint was lodged with the Federal Antomonopoly Service along with ten similar complaints from other citizens. It took months for the complaints to work their way through the bureaucratic system until at last the decision was delivered. Vodokanal is in breach of part 1, Article 10 of the "Law On the Protection of Competition." It now faces a fine. However, it can challenge the decision in court and intends to do so. As a result, it will be some time before Vera Kotlova and other residents will be able to pay for water according to their meters. In addition, the FAS decision on one complaint and even a collective complaint will not have universal force and effect. Every resident who feels that his or her rights have been violated would need to file a separate complaint.
"People were constantly on the phone trying to get through to the newly introduced Putin hotline," Vera Kotlova says. "We assume that his recent statement at a government meeting regarding meters is a response to our appeals. The government must do something about it. In Nizhny Novogorod alone, people pay millions for water they do not use."
The head of the Nizhny Novgorod FAS directorate, Mikhail Teodorovich, estimates that people overpay about one billion roubles each year.
Throughout the months that Vera Kotlova's complaint was under consideration, the meter in her apartment worked properly.
"We have overpaid 2600 roubles for water this year," she reckons.
Polina Kiselyova