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- Stubborn figure: housing and communal services will switch to electronic payments throughout Russia
Stubborn figure: housing and communal services will switch to electronic payments throughout Russia
Electronic payment documents for housing and communal services will be introduced throughout Russia. They will be automatically issued to citizens through GIS housing and communal services and Gosuslugi systems, and the appearance of information in them will be equated to the delivery of a payment document — now in most regions they are sent by banks. Such a bill was prepared by the Ministry of Construction. Representatives of management companies admit that electronic payment delivery is more profitable for them, but all regions have different levels of digitalization, so the decision must be made individually for each territory.
Why do they want to switch to electronic payments in Russia?
In Russia, they are preparing for a massive transition to paying for utilities in digital format through GIS housing and communal services and Gosuslugi systems. Such a bill with amendments to the Housing Code of the Russian Federation was prepared by the Ministry of Construction. In an explanatory note to the document, which Izvestia has, it is reported that it was developed in accordance with the instructions of President Vladimir Putin, the instructions of Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, as well as in order to implement the creation of a unified digital platform on housing and communal services on the basis of the state information system of housing and communal services (GIS Housing and communal services).
According to the document, it is assumed that utility bills in electronic form will be simultaneously placed in two systems.: in GIS housing and communal services and on the Gosuslugi portal.
"The provision of payment documents in electronic form by the specified method will be considered the proper delivery of the payment document to the consumer, as well as its delivery on paper," the explanatory note to the bill says.
The issue of switching to electronic payments for housing and communal services instead of paper ones has been discussed in Russia for several years. Back in 2022, the Ministry of Construction supported the possibility of such a process, but this has not yet been legally regulated. In 2024, the Commission of the State Council of the Russian Federation on Communications, Communications, and the digital Economy instructed the Ministry of Finance to work out the possibility of abandoning paper payments. At that time, the ministry informed Izvestia that the issue of introducing electronic receipts was being worked out with interested departments, while they stressed that the ability to pay for paper receipts should remain. This year, the Russian government launched a pilot project in the Moscow region to switch to digital utility receipts with the consent of a citizen. If the experiment is successful, it will be distributed to the whole country.
The explanatory note to the draft law notes that the procedure for submitting a payment document to these systems will be established in subordinate regulatory legal acts. In particular, they will define the procedure for taking into account the will of consumers of housing and communal services and organizations during the transition to the delivery of electronic payment documents, the procedure for interaction between GIS operators of housing and communal services and Gosuslugi, etc.
At the same time, according to the document, the possibility of posting such information on "Public Services" will be provided if the consumer of housing and communal services has been registered in the state information system "Unified Identification and Authentication System" (USIA), and has also agreed to send him the specified information.
"For a phased transition to electronic payment documents, taking into account the implementation by housing and communal services organizations of the necessary preparatory measures (assessment of their customer base and economic interests), it is planned to be carried out on the initiative of housing and communal services organizations and with the consent of housing and communal services consumers," the explanatory note says.
— The Ministry of Finance is aware of the draft amendments to the Housing Code prepared by the Ministry of Construction. The document is currently being discussed with the participation of colleagues from the Russian Ministry of Construction, including in terms of the technical features of delivering notices of payment for housing and communal services to the Gosuslugi portal, the press service of the department told Izvestia.
At the same time, they also noted that Public services are one of the ways to obtain information about accrued utility bills, and paper receipts will remain available to everyone.
— The bill is currently at the stage of public discussions. Its final version will be formed based on the results of regulatory procedures, the Ministry of Construction told Izvestia.
They noted that the new rules are aimed at creating a single method of delivery of a legally significant electronic payment document for the entire territory of the Russian Federation.
"It is expected that the centralized way of informing will help to increase the security of citizens receiving payment documents," the Ministry of Construction explained.
They stressed that the variability in utility bills provided for by the Housing Code of the Russian Federation will be preserved for the convenience of citizens.
Pros and cons of the introduction of electronic payments
The State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services considers the initiative of the Ministry of Construction useful.
— This is, of course, the right step. Firstly, money is saved on working with paper, printing it, and shipping it. Secondly, the security of the population is being increased, which will be protected from fraudsters and from cases of theft in apartments when a person does not live there, but bills are accumulating and it can be concluded that the owner is absent," Svetlana Razvorotneva, deputy chairman of the committee, explained to Izvestia.
According to her, the only difficulty for the implementation of this initiative is the inability of some citizens, mostly elderly pensioners, to use electronic devices and the Internet.
— Therefore, they need to be helped. For example, the Electronic House system is currently being implemented in Moscow. Employees of public utilities just walk around the apartments, tell and show how everything works. This, of course, affects people's attitudes and choices. If a company is interested in issuing electronic payments, it can allocate a resource for such explanatory work," the deputy believes.
The decision on such a transition to digital delivery of receipts should be made separately at the level of each region, since each territory has its own specifics, the level of digitalization and the involvement of the population in it, says Tatiana Gotsulenko, director of the Association of Management and Maintenance Organizations in the Housing Sector.
— On the one hand, it seems logical to send the payment by e-mail. But will the consumer be able to receive and read it? Does he have an account on Gosuslugi? Therefore, it seems to me that people should not be deprived of the traditional paper payment method," she told Izvestia.
At the same time, she noted that scammers appeared who began to bring fake receipts for payment with fake accounts. In this case, the appearance of bills in GIS housing and communal services would solve this problem, then the person would know that he has only one source of information, the industry representative believes. Nevertheless, time must resolve this issue, as sooner or later people will become more involved in the digital environment, Tatiana Gotsulenko believes.
— The draft law of the Ministry of Construction is, of course, very necessary for the heads of management companies. You can't imagine how much the company spends to print this payment and then deliver it to the mailbox. You have to pay for every step. This is very expensive, unlike the digital format," Vera Moskvina, executive director of the Moscow Housing and Communal Services Control Association, explained to Izvestia.
According to her, now banks offer citizens free services — to pay for communal services from their cards, from their personal accounts. However, there are disadvantages here too: if a person has several bank cards and these notifications are sent to him from everywhere, then you can get confused and pay several times. Therefore, it is important that there be a single source of payment — either GIS housing and communal services, Gosuslugi, or one bank authorized for these purposes, the expert believes.
— But the older generation is still not ready for this, because it is not an active user of digital technologies. Elderly people are waiting for a piece of paper anyway, and then they want it to be somewhere as proof of payment. Of course, progress is moving forward. Therefore, it is necessary either to help them through social workers, or to make it convenient for them," Vera Moskvina noted.
According to Andrey Shirokov, head of the CCI Committee on entrepreneurship in the field of housing and communal services, most of the population today does not use GIS housing and communal services or "Public Services" and still calls on push-button phones, not to mention computers and tablets. Therefore, it is unlikely that Russians will massively want to receive electronic payments.
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