Penza, 30 November 2012. PenzaNews. Utility rates are growing much faster than the income of the residents of the Penza region. Such a conclusion was made by a former member of the Legislative Assembly of the region of the fifth convocation from the Communist Party Alexey Kostin, comparing the percentage increase in utility rates and average level of wages in 2008 and 2012.

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According to his calculations, presented in a table on the website of Penza communists, four years ago, the residents of the region paid 29,67 rubles per cubic meter of hot water, but now they pay three times more — 88,77 rubles.

The biggest growth, according to the submitted data, was registered in the category “thermal energy”: in 2008 one gigacalorie was 606,61 rubles, while in 2012 — 1,106,52 rubles.

Moreover, cold water supply, sewerage and heating rates almost doubled in the stated period.

However, the average wage in the Penza region has been growing at a slower pace: four years ago, it was 11,723 rubles, at present it amounts to 18,850 rubles.

According to Alexei Kostin, utility rates, as they grow, tend to resemble a capitation tax.

“Utility rates are taxes which a person pays only for the fact of their existence. The immorality of these taxes is that they are devoid of any structural component, as collected and paid not for the benefit of the state, but a small group of people — the owners of enterprises-suppliers,” he said.

“With the erosion of Russian state institutions, managing competence of utility monopolies is being destroyed. Thus, according to experts, the loss of LLC “General Managing Company” connected with expiration of claims on uncollected utility payments per month amounts to about 10 million rubles. The inability of LLC “GMC” to fully collect utility payments makes it compensate the loss by distributing the deficit between the honest taxpayers. This leads to astronomical sums in the bills of taxpayers in the so-called expense item “public needs.” So it is not surprising, that most Penza citizens protest silently against such the system by simply not paying the utility rates,” Alexey Kostin added.