Andrey Tsyganov took part in the XV Congress of “United Russia”

On 5 February 2016, Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) Andrey Tsyganov took part in a discussion on “Economic Policy and Supporting Business Initiative” at the XV Congress of the “United Russia” political party.

Attendees included the Minister for Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Alexei Ulyukaev; the RF Presidential Commissioner for the Rights of Business People, Boris Titov; the President of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Alexander Shokhin; and members of the faction of the “United Russia” in the State Duma.

Active discussions focused on the work undertaken to eliminate administrative barriers. Practically all speakers emphasized that recently a lot was done to develop business in Russia; however, we must not stop on it – a system of control and supervision requires constant improvement. In particular, a proposal was put forward to not simply carry out inspections three times per year but organize integrated inspections – simultaneously by several government bodies.  

Participants were interested in FAS recently assigned powers on tariff regulation.

Andrey Tsyganov reported that FAS already started changing approaches to tariff regulation and set a course for optimizing corporates costs, which is reflected in the Strategy for changing tariff regulation.

“We promote the “inflation – minus” tariff principle; 2% for gas and 0% for railways”, clarified Deputy Head of FAS.

He also emphasized the importance of civic control which can be achieved through collaborative management teams and a public control system.

“We undertake an obligation to form Consumer Councils on all regulated markets in 2016. In our opinion, it is a significant step forward towards establishing public control over tariff “appetites” of market participants”, emphasized Andrey Tsyganov.

In conclusion, Deputy Head of the Antimonopoly Service said that FAS is also in favour of developing intensive competition on the markets that traditionally used to be considered natural monopolies although in reality their monopoly is absolutely unnatural. In particular, it concerns land-line telephony and Moscow aviation hub.