The debt of the population of Ukraine on payment for natural gas from January 1 to March 31, 2017 increased by 16.7% - to UAH 7.117 billion.

This is reported by the State Statistics Service, UNIAN reports..

According to the report, for the reporting period the population's arrears in payment for centralized heating and hot water supply increased by 8.8% to UAH 10.355 billion, while for maintenance of houses and adjacent territories by 4.3% - up to 2.5 billion UAH.

It is also reported that for the first quarter of this year, the population's debt for payment of water supply and sanitation services (by 11.8%) decreased to 1.3 billion hryvnias and for the export of domestic waste (by 9.6%) to 345.5 million Grivna.

According to Gosstat, the general level of charges for housing and communal services for the population from January 1 to March 31, 2017 amounted to 33.5 billion hryvnia, of which 28.6 billion hryvnias were paid. Thus, the level of payment was 85.3%.

It is noted that the lowest level of payment (77.

6%) was recorded when paying the cost of gas.

Recall, according to Gosstat, as of December 31, 2016 the debt of the population of Ukraine on payment for natural gas was 6.439 billion hryvnia, for centralized heating and hot water supply - 9.390 billion hryvnia, for water supply and water disposal - 1.526 billion hryvnia, for the maintenance of houses and Of residential areas - 2.432 billion hryvnia and for the removal of domestic waste - 386.9 million hryvnia.