Change the system of utilities payment

Deputies of the Committee on State Regional Policy considered amendments to the Housing Code relating to the payment of utility services. The main purpose of the law-in-draft, initiated by Deputy Anton Onufrienko, is to increase the payment discipline of citizens. It is proposed that tenants of apartment buildings pay utility bills directly to their manufacturers. Service contracts will be concluded between the housing and operational organization and associations of tenants. In this case, payment for utilities will be made directly from the consumer to the utility manufacturer.

The legislator emphasized that the changes proposed by the law-in-draft are not new. This utility payment mechanism is used in individual residential buildings and multi-storey residential buildings of the municipal fund. The law-in-draft is recommended for adoption in the first reading.

The deputies of the Committee among non-core issues considered a package of legislations relating to optimizing the number of deputies at all levels. Legislative initiative, proposed by a group of parliamentarians, involves amending the Constitution, the law on the Rules of the Supreme Council and the Electoral Code. The conceptual task of legislations is rationalization, including the reduction of consolidated budget expenditures on the functioning of the legislative and representative bodies of local authority.

Elena Gorodetskaya, Chairperson of the Central Election Commission, told how and when the reform will be implemented. According to her, at present, the Central Election Commission is conducting preliminary work on the search for optimal options for the formation of constituencies. If legislative changes are adopted, the new system of deputies will be elected in 2020.