OREANDA-NEWS. December 16, 2008. The Russian government is considering a 5% rise in tariff for gas supplied by Gazprom both for industrial consumers and households effective January 1, a source in the relevant agency said. "There are previous options to hike tariff (increase prices) effective January by 5% both for households and industrial consumers", the source said.

According to the source, freezing gas prices for households effective January 1 was not at issue. The source also noted that it is unclear for the time being what mechanism will be used if an affirmative decision is reached on slowing down tariff hikes, given that FTS’s board in early November already approved the parameters of average annual growth of wholesale gas tariffs in 2009 at 25% and industrial users at 19.6%.