Payment for Pipes Built at Private Expense: Government Urged to Waive Gas Distribution Fees
13 August 15:02
ANALYSIS
A proposal has been made to the Cabinet of Ministers to revise the procedure for calculating natural gas distribution fees. This refers to a regular monthly payment that consumers are required to make regardless of whether they used gas during the current month. The initiative was submitted as an online petition on the Government Portal, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
What Is the Proposal About?
The document notes that the current system is causing widespread outrage and is a financial burden for many families.
“Today, millions of Ukrainians are forced to pay a separate monthly fee for natural gas distribution, regardless of how much gas they actually consumed. In many cases, the delivery fee equals or even exceeds the cost of the gas consumed. This system is causing outrage and is unfair, especially for retirees, large families, low-income individuals, and rural residents,” the petition states.
The petition’s author, Olena Vitkivska, proposes two possible solutions to the problem to the government. The first is to completely abolish the separate fee for gas distribution. The second is to link the amounts charged to the actual volume of consumption in a given month.
Currently, the delivery fee remains fixed, as it is calculated based on consumption volumes from the previous gas year. As a result, situations arise where, for people with minimal or temporarily zero consumption, the cost of gas transportation becomes comparable to the price of the energy resource itself or even exceeds it.
Fees for Private Networks: Another Argument
The petition specifically addresses the issue of infrastructure in rural areas. The author emphasizes that in many communities, gas networks were built at the residents’ own expense—people paid for the design, materials, and installation work themselves.
“Residents used their own funds to pay for the design, purchase of materials, construction of street gas pipelines, and the connection of gas to their homes. In fact, people invested their own funds in creating this infrastructure, and today they are forced to constantly pay a separate tariff for using networks that were created with their financial participation.”
In light of this, the petition proposes conducting a review of the validity of the current distribution rates and taking into account citizens’ initial financial contributions to infrastructure development when calculating charges.
How are social media users reacting?
News of the petition sparked a heated discussion on social media. The vast majority of commenters strongly support the initiative, as evidenced by numerous indignant comments from Ukrainians. People’s reactions can be divided into several main categories. Citizens are pointing out en masse that gas networks in many communities were installed at their own expense. Many consumers complain that the transportation fee significantly exceeds the cost of the gas itself. Others compare this to absurd services, such as “delivering a bus to a bus stop” or “delivering bread to a store.”
A particular source of distress for people is receiving bills amid the war. Natalia Kabanets describes the situation in the town of Malokaterynivka in the Zaporizhzhia district, where people continue to receive bills even after being forcibly evacuated and having their homes destroyed.
“Our house was destroyed, and there’s no gas in the town. Where this money is going and to whom—no one knows.”
Readers are also outraged by the imposition of late fees during the war. Many users believe the initiative will lead nowhere, and that the authorities “won’t listen anyway.”
“We’ve collected petitions 100 times already—what good has it done?” writes Olga Levytska.
There are also concerns that even if the delivery fee is canceled, the regional gas company will simply pass these costs on to the base rate. Some users note that it would be better if this money went directly to support the army.
“It would be better to just give the money directly to the military for drones,” notes Pavlo Porovay.
Despite isolated opinions that the gas pipeline maintenance service should receive funding for its work, the general public sentiment is clear—the current billing system is perceived as unfair and in need of immediate change.
Should we expect the fee to be abolished soon?
At this time, there is no talk of abolishing or automatically revising the tariffs. According to the law, for the Cabinet of Ministers to be required to consider a petition, it must gather at least 25,000 signatures within three months.
While the initiative is still in the signature-gathering phase, the current billing procedure remains unchanged—consumers are required to pay for gas distribution according to the existing rules and rates set by their gas distribution system operators.
Moreover, Ukrainians have submitted similar petitions dozens of times. This issue has remained one of the most contentious in the housing and utilities sector since January 2020, when gas bills were officially split into two parts. Waves of public outrage and petitions submitted to the websites of the President and the Cabinet of Ministers were first recorded at the start of the reform, then at the end of 2021 due to rising rates, and later in 2022, when people demanded the cancellation of delivery fees for empty or war-damaged homes. This year, this is also far from the first attempt to draw the authorities’ attention to the problem. However, none of the previous petitions ever changed the situation. Most of them simply failed to gather the required 25,000 votes due to the complex verification process, and in the few successful cases, officials provided a standard legal response stating that the funds are used for the ongoing maintenance of pressurized gas networks, so by law, everyone with a gas line connected to their home must pay, regardless of their gas consumption.
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