The article consists of five parts. Chapter I is concerned with relationships between the federal and local budgets. Chapter II point out that the burden of public utilities on the budget is too heavy. Chapter III examines critical issues of the situation of population in Russia regarding high prices on public utilities. Chapter IV concerns the anti-monopoly policy.
Chapter V ends by the international comparison of the level of tariffs on electricity.
Available data is presented in the Appendix of this paper. The former Soviet Union had a system in which the governments and enterprises bore the greater costs of public utilities, and the Soviets enjoyed low prices. This structure has not yet been changed fundamentally in Russia. Although natural monopolistic enterprises have been privatized and the market system was introduced to improve efficiency, old rules and systems still remain to be reformed. It illustrates a very heavy burden of public utilities on the budget.