The Ministry of Energy’s suggestion is to implement increased tariffs for electricity transmission services specifically for miners. Regional authorities would have the option to raise the tariffs by five times if there is a high risk of electrical capacity shortage.
During the meeting, participants criticized the Ministry of Energy’s initiative, describing it as discriminatory. They stressed that such regulations would negatively impact the investment climate and potentially force legal miners into operating in the shadows. One of the council’s members, Deputy Andrei Lugovoy, voiced concerns about the decrease in tax deductions from mining activities and argued that the energy shortage problem would remain unsolved, as it may lead to a surge in household energy consumption, given that tariffs for the general population are much lower than industrial rates.
Lugovoy emphasized that the Ministry of Energy should work alongside the mining industry to explore alternative methods of regulating and reducing energy deficit, without resorting to discriminatory measures.
Previously, the Rosseti Siberia company had attributed emergency power outages to cryptocurrency mining activities.