OREANDA-NEWS. December 18, 2008. Gas tariffs will rise smoothly next year, on a quarterly basis, economic development minister Elvira Nabiullina said after a meeting on economic issues chaired by the president. She noted that “the decisions on revision of tariff hikes for products and services of natural monopolies have been incorporated” into the forecast. “As regards gas tariffs, decisions are to be taken to ensure smoother increases on a quarterly basis for all consumers, including households”, said the minister.

“This will amount to 5% in the first quarter, 7% in the second quarter, 7% in the third quarter and 6.2% in the fourth quarter of next year” – said Nabiullina. “The earlier decisions adopted regarding the utilities industry will remain in effect” – noted the minister. A source at a relative agency explained that the government decided not to revise the deadline for hiking household electricity tariffs. Such a proposal was discussed last Friday and will require allocation of funds to power utilities to offset lost revenue. According to the earlier adopted decisions, electricity tariffs in Russia will rise by an average 19% since the beginning of the year, including 25% for households. Earlier it was reported that gas tariffs will be indexed by an average 20.3% and by 25% for households.