Lukashenka: People paid 80% - not 40% for utilities

Belarusians have paid 80% of the real cost of the utilities instead of 40%, Alyaksandr Lukashenka claimed when laying flowers to the Victory Monument on February 23.

The President approached Russian Ambassador Alexander Surikov after the festive ceremony and spoke about problems in the sphere of housing and utilities.

Lukashenka: "I ordered that officials photographed everything like in Soviet times, do you remember? Let them check the whole technology. What has happened? People are paying twice more than planned – 80% instead of 40%.”

Officials from the Ministry of Housing and Utilities increased the tariffs expecting to get compensation from the budget. “The bigger the tariffs are, the bigger the compensation will be,” Lukashenka said.

Officials got the real tariffs. However, they started cunning to get more money from the budget, he claimed.