The Ministry of Digital Development did not support the idea of ​​agreeing with the subscriber on the increase in communication tariffs

The Ministry of Digital Development and the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) did not support the proposal of State Duma deputies from the New People party to oblige telecom operators to enter into additional agreements with customers when tariffs are raised above the consumer price index for communication services for the previous year.

In October, the leader of the New People, Alexey Nechaev, and a number of deputies from his faction sent a letter to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko with a proposal not only to notify subscribers about the increase in tariffs, but also to coordinate the price increase with them. Parliamentarians pointed to the increasing frequency of cases of unreasonable increases in tariffs of the largest Russian telecom operators.

Deputy Minister of Digital Development Dmitry Ugnivenko, in his letter to the authors of the initiative (available to Kommersant), noted that the department does not support the proposal, since to prevent an unjustified increase in tariffs, activity checks that are regularly carried out by the FAS are sufficient. “Introducing the proposed amendments to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 9, 2014 No. 1342 “On the procedure for providing telephone services” is inappropriate,” the official concluded. Deputy head of the FAS Petr Ivanov agreed with the position of the ministry and also said that the service refused to support the proposal of the “New People”.

According to TelecomDaily estimates, prices for mobile and broadband services, taking into account the fixed level of growth compared to inflation, in 2023 may increase by 12–15%, and in 2024 – up to 20%. The largest telecom operators believe that modernizing networks to ensure their stable operation requires an annual increase in tariffs of at least 5% above inflation.

Read more about the rise in prices for the services of mobile operators in the Kommersant article “Communication tariffs have turned red.”

Alexander Kislov