By Filip Blagojević, President of the New DSS Belgrade City Committee

Critics of the Belgrade authorities often, and quite rightly, point out the financial difficulties facing the Belgrade city budget due to irresponsible, incompetent, and wasteful management of the Serbian capital.

However, I have the impression that we do not speak enough about the financial problems of the people of Belgrade caused by such a government. I have devoted myself to this task, and through an analysis of communal service price movements from the beginning of 2022 to the present day, I wanted to highlight the growing burden borne by Belgrade households.

The figures are clear and unequivocal: citizens of Belgrade today spend around 41% more on utility services than they did just four years ago. During the period observed, there were several waves of price hikes across almost all municipal services, and certain increases were drastic. The cost of maintaining a building with a lift rose by roughly 74%, whilst the fee for maintaining the hygiene of common areas in buildings increased by as much as 85%. Nevertheless, the biggest blow to the household budget in absolute terms is the increased cost of heating.

The scale of these price rises can best be demonstrated through the example of a typical Belgrade family of four living in a 50-square-metre flat, in a building with a lift and connected to district heating.

In 2022, that family set aside around 9,720 dinars a month for the municipal services in question, whereas today, for the very same flat and the same scope of services, they have to pay out around 13,750 dinars. This means that every month they pay roughly 4,030 dinars more than four years ago, which amounts to an annual additional cost of around 48,360 dinars. Heating is the single largest expense; annually, this family spends approximately 92,400 dinars on it, or about 20,700 dinars more than at the start of 2022.

These figures cover only the services provided by the city’s municipal utility system. When you add the rise in electricity prices to this – where the higher tariff in the green zone has increased by roughly 50% since early 2022 – the burden becomes even heavier.

A family consuming 350 kWh per month would today spend about 17,400 dinars more per year just for active electrical energy, including excise duty and VAT. When the increases in utility services and electricity are combined, an additional sum of around 65,760 dinars is taken out of a single household’s budget every year, which is roughly equivalent to a monthly minimum wage.

How do the authorities’ boastful stories about free services and minimal price increases – which are rarely even called that, but rather framed as “adjustments” to prices – look to you now? Once again, it is proven that this government gives citizens nothing for free. What it presents as a gift, it later collects several times over through higher bills and new burdens, once more on the backs of Belgraders. Not only do they give us nothing for free, but they also bake incompetence, corruption, hiring of people close to the governing political party, and single-bidder tenders into the price of services…

Which brings us to the question: what kind of solution is possible? It is clear that a solution cannot be offered by those who caused the problem in the first place. That means the prerequisite is for the current government to be voted out, and I think it is clear to everyone that the SNS-SPS coalition stands no chance of remaining in power after the next city elections.

After that, what is needed is a thorough reform of public administration and the operation of municipal utility companies, which will be run by the most capable rather than the most obedient. A series of other measures, which the New DSS will present in the coming period, is also essential.

Living in Belgrade has evidently become far too expensive, and when one takes into account the rising prices of food, medicine, school supplies, property, and rent, it has become unmanageable for many. The hardest consequences of these price hikes are suffered by pensioners, the unemployed, the socially vulnerable, and low-income families, as their earnings cannot keep pace with the rising costs of basic services.

Paradoxically, it is precisely from these citizens that the government expects the greatest support, counting on them to keep them in office. I am convinced they are mistaken. People who watch every penny on a daily basis will not keep choosing those who squander millions for much longer. They will choose those who will manage public money responsibly and genuinely care about the citizens, rather than their own interests.

(Danas, 23.07.2026)

https://www.danas.rs/dijalog/licni-stavovi/koliko-nas-kosta-losa-beogradska-vlast/