Victor Rogotsky: Energy is the basis of prosperity of the country

Energy is the basis for the country's economic development and the well-being of its population, a member of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy and senator from the Yaroslavl region Victor Rogotsky said today in the studio of Vestnik Kavkaza.

"Energy is the foundation of economic development and the well-being of the population. Thus, it is a socially important factor. Once I said that energy is a social barometer of society. Therefore, there is no doubt that energy is an important factor of our well-being. So its development is normal and a constant concern of the state, including the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly," he said.

At the same time, the senator noted that one of the main problems of the industry is the situation with non-payments. ‘‘We thought that we cannot go back to the 90s. In that period of time there was a common situation, moreover there were no operating accounts, only barter credits. It was a mess. After that, we set up an economic mechanism in order to increase discipline, including payments. Unfortunately, in recent years this situation is worsening. You see the debts of all kinds of resources stand at about 1 trillion rubles. Electric power is 250, heat is 400, gas is 200, and so on. Enormous sums of money! This is money that resource-supplying organizations didn’t receive for their development, in order to provide the safe working of enterprises, as well as people's lives,’’ Rogotsky said.

"Different regions have different payments: from 95-97% up to about 70%. And, unfortunately, the situation in the republics of the North Caucasus is difficult,’’ he said.

At the same time, if you look at the statistics, 80% of debts are debts of companies, and only 20% of debts belong to the population.

According to the senator, citizens of Russia as a whole are trying to pay for energy regularly, but it turns out they don’t always do it. Unfortunately, there are people who do this for no acceptable reason. 6% of the population don’t pay, as they consider that it isn’t worth paying for these kinds of services. 17% just forget about it. And I can give more impressive statistics: 51% are medium and high-paying residents. It really makes us think about it,’’ he said.