Heat transfer tariffs in Belarus to be tied to Russian ruble

MINSK. Oct 20 (Interfax) - The cost of heat transmission in Belarus will be pegged to the Russian ruble, the Belarusian Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade said in a statement on Thursday.

"The ministry's resolution No. 60, of October 7, 2022 [. . .] aims at ensuring unified approaches to the application of the Belarusian ruble/Russian ruble exchange rate in payments for energy products," the statement said.

When setting tariffs for heat transmission the rate of the Belarusian ruble to the Russian ruble rate will be used in calculations of cost of electricity, the ministry said.

Resolution No. 60 is effective after its official publication.

Belarusian utility rates for businesses are already tied to the Russian ruble in accordance with a decree signed by President Alexander Lukashenko on September 9.

"Given the switch to Russian rubles in payments for the gas acquired in the Russian Federation, the decree establishes that the indexation of prices for energy resources and tariffs for utility services be tied not to the U.S. dollar rate but to the rate of the currency used in such payments," the president's press service said then.

This indexation procedure applies to payments from July 1, 2022.

Belarus has been paying for imported Russian gas in Russian rubles since April. The mechanism and details of the calculations were not specified then.