A penalty for delinquent payment for housing and utilities services will be introduced in Ukraine from January 1, 2019, although the penalty will not be accrued for those families that do not have subsidies or their employers have wage arrears, one of the authors of the bill on utilities and housing services Olena Babak (the Samopomich parliamentary faction) has said.

"The penalty is introduced from January 1, 2019 in the amount of 0.01% of each overdue day after the term during which payment can be settled expires," Babak told reporters in the Verkhovna Rada on Thursday.

"If the state has a debt for subsidies and awarded benefits the penalty is not accrued. If a person has unpaid salaries confirmed in papers, he or she would not pay this penalty too," Babak said.