The State Duma approved amendments to the Law on heat supplies in the third reading

By the second reading FAS drafted amendments that establish antimonopoly control in this field

On 19 July 2017, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted amendments to the Law on heat supplies in the third reading.

Following instructions of the Russian Government, FAS devised clauses establishing the norms of antimonopoly regulation in transition to the target model of the heat supply market.

“After the document comes into effect, the system of heat supplies will have a system of continuous antimonopoly control over its performance. Should any violations be found by the Unified Tariff Body, sanctions will be applied”, pointed out Deputy Head of FAS, Vitaly Korolev. “To remind, under this method of regulation the Unified Heat-Supplying Body has such functions as: distributing load, dispatching on the relevant area and regulating relations between all consumers and suppliers of relevant resources. In view of such important powers, special control over such organizations is required, and FAS specified such a mechanism in the draft Law”.

Deputy Head of FAS emphasized: “If the Antimonopoly Service exposes violations in the actions of the Unified Heat-Supplying Body, administrative punishment will be applied, and in case of repeated violations – it will be deprived of the status of the Unified Heat-Supplying Body.

The draft Law shall now be submitted to the Federal Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. It is expected that the draft law will be considered on 25 July.