The lower cost of heating will ease the many strained budgets in Lithuania during the economic crisis. Photo by Nathan Greenhalgh.

VILNIUS — Apartment owners and renters across Lithuania received good news from the Ministry of Energy Friday that the average home connected to central heating will pay 76 litai (€22) less per month than last year to heat their homes.

The savings are the result of lower rates for electricity, natural gas, heating and a reduction in the gyvatuko (heating snake in the bathroom) fee or “snake tax.”

“Heating costs in Lithuania have dropped by 15-20 percent this season,” Kęstutis Jauniškis, press adviser to the minister of energy told Baltic Reports. “The gyvatuko problem is a sore point, indeed, as the [heating] operators assign their losses for heating inside the houses into the end-customer snake tax.”

In September this year the so-called snake tax varied from 20 to 80 litas.

“The Ministry of Energy, therefore, has drafted an amendment to the Law on Heat Sector,” Jauniškis said.

The law currently says that heating operators can pass on the cost of heat loss through exposed pipes the customer via the snake tax.

“To be more precise, we are suggesting that customers should pay for hot water according to the meter reading plus a fixed snake tax, which should be around 20 litai,” Jauniškis said. “We assume that the new amendment will make the operators check customer meter readings more regularly and find more cheating customers who refuse to pay for heating services, also, isolate pipes in order to decrease heating transmission losses.”

Central heating was turned on this week for regular homes and was already running in government buildings and schools the week before.

The 76 litai estimate is based on a three-person family living in a Soviet-built 61 sq meter apartment.

The reduced fees are expected to save 475,000 home owners 36 million litai (€10 million) collectively.

LITHUANIAN UTILITY COSTS IN 2009: