FAS workshop in Makhachkala

A two-day FAS workshop started on 14 July in Makhachkala, chaired by Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Kashevarov. Representatives of around 20 FAS regional offices and FAS Central Office took part in the event.

Deputy Plenipotentiary Envoy of the President of the Russian Federation in the South Caucasus Federal District, Sergey Mileiko; First Deputy Chairman of the People’s Assembly of the Republic of Dagestan, Yuri Levitsky; and First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Republic of Dagestan, Anatoly Karibov also were actively involved in the workshop.

Opening the event, Andrey Kashevarov said that the workshop agenda included the effects of the forth antimonopoly package, FAS judicial practice, and tariff regulation including the electric power industry.

"The emphasis will also be put on developing competition in the regions, problems facing the regions implementing the Competition Development Standard. The work will be productive and, hopefully, successful", stated Andrey Kashevarov.

Deputy Plenipotentiary Envoy of the President of the Russian Federation in the South Caucasus Federal District, Sergey Mileiko emphasized the importance and topicality of the event.

"The role of the government antimonopoly policy in the modern times can hardly be overestimated. Development of healthy competition is a guarantee of successful and sustainable economic development. It is important to understand the monopolization and unfair competition are not only economic issues, today they have social implications. Taking into account the multi-faceted nature of the efforts of the Antimonopoly Service, such workshops, designed to look into the issues of concern in antimonopoly enforcement and judicial practice, are a very good method to enhance efficiency of antimonopoly regulation", pointed out Sergey Mileiko.

After the official opening of the workshop, Andrey Kashevarov answered questions from journalists who were mainly interested in additional services imposed with mandatory third party liability insurance and possible growth of prices for essential medicinal drugs.

"FAS already stated that life-saving medications should not be removed from the market. This market is regulated, the maximum prices are set, and, accordingly, the potential of enterprises on the pharmaceutical market is exhausted. In this context, the Government of the Russian Federation is working on a decision that will enable enterprises to continue their work and will not be related to increased prices.  Overall drug prices have not increased by more than 8 % in the regulated market segment. Since a lot of drugs in Russia are made from substances purchased abroad, preserving prices factoring in the dollar exchange rates is FAS work”, said Deputy Head of FAS.

According to Andrey Kashevarov, FAS has been having discussing with insurance issues with the insurance community for a long time and was working with the Central Bank.

"Our colleagues from the Central Bank decided to introduce the so-called cooling period. It means that any citizen who considers that a policy was imposed upon him (her) can within five days, can return the policy without incurring any expenses. Regarding mandatory third party liability insurance, the Central Bank must within a short time introduce electronic policies and such sales also exclude imposing. Therefore, I believe that in the near future imposing in this filed will be going down", assured Andrey Kashevarov.

Deputy Head of FAS also awarded the distinguished employees of Dagestan OFAS and members of OFAS Public Advisory Council, actively involved in developing competition in a region.