Duma postpones energy bills until next year

The State Duma will not consider the set of bills on reforms in the electrical energy industry, which were proposed by the government, this year, head of the People's Deputy parliamentary group Gennady Raikov told journalists today. He stressed that the lower house of parliament would not consider these bills in 2002 despite the fact that today it passed the bill "On State Regulations of Tariffs on Electrical and Heat Energy in the Russian Federation", which had been rejected by the Federation Council. Earlier, centrist factions called the approval of this bill on tariffs an obligatory condition for the approval of energy bills.