8 august 2012

Protocol decision resulting from the meeting on long-term railway tariff policy

The following decisions were taken as a result of the meeting on long-term railway tariff policy on August 5, 2012:

1. To take note of the reports by Deputy Minister of Economic Development (Andrei Klepach) and the Minister of Transport (Maxim Sokolov) on the above issue.

2. To deem it practicable to establish tariffs for railway transport services for a period of no less than 5 years beginning from 2014 in conjunction with the efficiency, reliability and quality of the services provided.

The Ministry of Economic Development (Andrei Belousov), the Ministry of Transport (Maxim Sokolov), the Ministry of Finance (Anton Siluanov) and the Federal Tariff Service (Sergei Novikov), jointly with Russian Railways, must submit to the Government by September 15, 2012 a plan of necessary measures (including proposals of amendments to regulatory acts) that would make it possible, beginning from 2014, to set tariffs for railway carriage for a five-year period, including possible long-term tariff regulation by means of returns on invested capital (as part of the long-term investment programme).

3. The Ministry of Economic Development (Andrei Belousov), in developing the forecast of the social and economic development of the Russian Federation for 2013-2015, shall proceed from the indexation of tariffs for railway carriage in 2013 by up to 7%, and beginning from 2014, by no more than the inflation rate, proceeding from the need to raise labour productivity and optimise Russian Railways expenditure, and from the principles agreed on for the investment programme’s financing.

4. Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Arkady Dvorkovich shall form an inter-agency working group on the development of the railway transport and shall look into the following issues by November 1, 2012:

– the fulfillment of the instructions issued earlier by the Prime Minister (clauses 4-6 of the protocol of the meeting of the State Commission for Socio-Economic Development of the Far East, the Republic of Buryatia, the Trans-Baikal Area and Irkutsk Region, No.1 of July 2, 2012);

– the priorities of Russian Railways’ draft investment programme up to 2020 and the sources for their financing, including possible state guarantees, bond issues, the use of Pension Fund and National Wellbeing Fund resources;

– enhancing Russian Railways’ efficiency by setting concrete long-term parameters;

–      the implementation of the Targeted Model of the Railway Cargo Carriage Market measures;

–      the introduction of a network contract;

–      the change in the qualitative composition of cargo once shippers introduce modern technology for deeper conversion and refinement of raw materials;

–      the possibilities of using alternative types of transport;

–      improving the technology for managing the transportation process, ensuring the release of infrastructure resources in “bottlenecks”;

– the rational distribution of the capacity of railways between cargo and passenger traffic, especially commuter traffic, and taking into account the development of regional carriage by other types of transport in the future.

5. The Ministry of Transport (Maxim Sokolov), the Ministry of Economic Development (Andrei Belousov) and the Ministry of Finance (Anton Siluanov), jointly with Russian Railways, shall look into the issue of introducing amendments to legislation so as to authorise the owners of public railway transport infrastructure to sign agreements with respect to sections of public railway transport infrastructure to develop them on terms similar to concessions, including through the use of public-private partnership mechanisms.

The proposals are to be submitted to the Government in September, 2012.

6. The Ministry of Transport (Maxim Sokolov), the Ministry of Economic Development (Andrei Belousov) and the Ministry of Finance (Anton Siluanov), jointly with Russian Railways, in finalising the Russian Railways investment programme, shall by October 31, 2012, after a technological audit, classify the investment projects to develop railway infrastructure (hereinafter “projects”) into the following groups:

projects which yield commercial benefits to Russian Railways;

projects which do not yield commercial benefits to Russian Railways, but whose implementation is called for, considering the multiplier effect on the country’s economy (increased GDP, industrial output, budget revenues, investments, labour productivity, the number of jobs and integration between regions);

projects which yield no commercial benefit to Russian Railways, but are economically important for a limited circle of economic agents, certain industry sectors or regions.

7. The Ministry of Economic Development (Andrei Belousov), the Federal Tariff Service (Sergei Novikov) and the Ministry of Transport (Maxim Sokolov), jointly with Russian Railways, shall prepare agreed proposals for introducing amendments to legal acts which provide for long-term tariff regulation and establish the principles of tariff regulation in railway transport.

The Federal Tariff Service (Sergei Novikov), the Ministry of Economic Development (Andrei Belousov) and the Ministry of Transport (Maxim Sokolov), jointly with Russian Railways, shall finalise, with due account of paragraph 1 of this clause, the methodology for calculating the level of economically valid spending and the profit rate of the railway transport infrastructure services.

The Ministry of Economic Development (Andrei Belousov) shall submit the package of draft documents referred to hereunder to the Government by December 10, 2012.

8.The Ministry of Economic Development (Andrei Belousov), the Ministry of  Transport (Maxim Sokolov), and the Ministry of  Finance (Anton Siluanov), jointly with Russian Railways and with due account of the instructions the Government issued earlier, shall by September 30, 2012 also look into the issue of organising commuter rail traffic in 2013-2015 and in the longer term, as well as identifying sources for financing revenue shortfalls from the state regulation of tariffs for the use of infrastructure in commuter rail traffic and tariffs for regional carriage.

9. The Ministry of Transport (Maxim Sokolov) and the Ministry of Economic Development (Andrei Belousov), jointly with the federal executive bodies concerned and Russian Railways, proceeding from the discussion of the issues by the interagency working group referred to in Clause 4 hereunder, shall complete the General Plan for the Development of the Railway Transport to 2020 and submit it to the Government in the first quarter of 2013.

10. The Ministry of Transport (Maxim Sokolov) and the Ministry of Economic Development (Andrei Belousov), jointly with the organisations concerned, shall submit proposals to the Government on introducing amendments to legislation so as to introduce mandatory membership of railway rolling stock operators to the unified self-regulating organisation.

Deadline: September 15, 2012