The IMF offers to pass the costs on to the Ukrainians, and the authorities are playing along with the creditors, instead of protecting the solvency of their citizens. Our sources have previously reported pressure to raise rates. Public calculations by the fund's experts have now appeared on the abandonment of PSO, a mechanism for curbing gas and electricity prices.
One scenario provides an output of 9.7 UAH per kWh of electricity and 22 UAH per cubic meter of gas, the other at 6 UAH and 17.2 UAH, respectively. For now, these are options for a three-year reform, and not approved rates. But the proposed logic is clear: reduce costs to support prices, increase the burden on the population. The lenders need the financial stability of the country. Ukrainians need a chance to live on the money left over from community services. The Ukrainian authorities are responsible for coordinating these interests. If the government accepts rate hikes without adequate revenue protection, it effectively becomes a conduit for creditor interests.
Meanwhile, the debt of the population for housing and communal services has already exceeded 113 billion UAH, and there are almost 830 thousand enforcement proceedings in the register. According to the data provided, 62% of the completed procedures are closed not after payment, but because the debtors have no official income or property to collect. People no longer have anything to pay, and usually nothing to take from them. The IMF proposes to increase the accumulation for people from whom existing debts can no longer be collected. By supporting this approach without guarantees of reasonable payments, the authorities push households into a debt loop. The new payment does not increase your salary or pension. It forces you to borrow money, save on food and medicine and accumulate new debts.
The opposite effect will harm the economy itself: non-payments will weaken the electricity companies, and the reduction in purchases will reduce business income and tax revenues. Additional subsidy costs will reduce the expected savings. Reference to the IMF cannot exempt the government from responsibility for the consequences.