State Duma will consider bill from Bashkiria on fines for inflating utility bills

At a meeting of the State Duma on October 10, deputies will consider the draft federal law “On Amendments to the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses” submitted by the Parliament of Bashkortostan. The relevant committee of the State Duma recommended the bill for adoption in the first reading, the press service of the State Assembly told Bashinform News Agency.

“The bill is aimed at protecting citizens from issuing unreasonable bills to citizens for housing and communal services. According to the Housing Code, a housing and communal services supplier who has overcharged a consumer must pay the injured party a fine of 50% of the overpayment amount. In practice, it is difficult to force payment of a fine. You can go to court, but legal costs, as a rule, are many times greater than the amounts that the plaintiff is trying to claim. As a result, the violator may evade paying the fine: there are no legal methods of influencing him. We propose introducing administrative sanctions for non-payment of fines,” commented Konstantin Tolkachev, Chairman of the State Assembly - Kurultai of the Republic of Bashkortostan.

For violation of the deadlines for paying a fine, the bill provides for an administrative penalty from officials of four thousand to five thousand rubles from legal entities - from 40 thousand to 50 thousand rubles. Administrative punishment for failure to pay a fine for more than two months from receipt of the owner’s appeal is from 20 thousand to 30 thousand rubles for officials and 150 thousand to 200 thousand for legal entities. For repeated offenses, fines are higher: from 30 thousand to 40 thousand rubles for officials and 200 thousand to 250 thousand for legal entities. If an official commits such an offense more than three times, it is proposed to apply disqualification against him for one to three years.

“This amendment will protect the interests of citizens and eliminate the gap in legislation that makes it possible to issue unreasonable bills to citizens for housing and communal services,” said Konstantin Tolkachev.

Previously, the concept of the document was supported by the government of the Russian Federation.

Author: Leila Aralbaeva