SERGEY PUZYREVSKIY: THE CONTROL-AND-MONITORING REFORM CARRIED OUT BY FAS IN TARIFF REGULATION REMOVED 7.5 BILLION UNREASONABLE EXPENSES FROM TARIFFS

Deputy Head of FAS discussed the main tariff policy directions at the plenary session of the All-Russian workshop on tariff regulation

“Last year the Antimonopoly Service carried out scheduled and unscheduled inspections of the decisions of regional tariff bodies. It analyzed 3,500 tariff decisions and issued more than 60 orders with regard to the exposed violations of the pricing. FAS also considered around 250 prejudicial disputes and disagreements. Based on the outcome of all inspections and control-and-monitoring measures, the Antimonopoly Service made a decision to exclude around 7.5 billion RUB from the established tariffs”, said Deputy Head of FAS Sergey Puzyrevskiy at the All-Russian workshop on tariff regulation in Yalta.

Deputy Head of FAS listed the types of violations committed by regional tariff bodies in Russia.

In the second part of his report, Sergey Puzyrevskiy highlighted the planned legislative changes in tariff regulation.

For instance, more than 150 acts regulate tariffs: 18 federal laws, 40 Decrees of the Government of the Russian Federation and more than 100 departmental regulatory acts currently regulated the pricing system in Russia.

“In April 2018, a Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation approved a unified order for considering prejudicial disputes and disagreements. Now there is only one document instead of 16”, pointed out Sergey Puzyrevskiy.

Discussing the new procedure for considering prejudicial disputes, Deputy Head of FAS stated that for dispute consideration one of the parties must file a petition to FAS no later than three months after it learned or should have learned about infringement of its rights. The antimonopoly body has 10 days to make a decision to consider the case or to dismiss a request for hearing. Earlier, the Law of the Russian Federation formalized different timelines for considering prejudicial disputes and tariff disagreements: from 30 to 90 days. Now the period for FAS consideration of all disputes will be 90 days with the right to extend the consideration period for 1 month.

The new procedure formalizes possibility of federal executive bodies that perform the functions for devising and pursuing the state policy and normative legal regulation over the fuel-and-energy complex, the housing-and-utility sector, the electric power industry, transport, to participate in considering prejudicial disputes, depending on the subject of a prejudicial dispute. A representative of the Ministry of Economic Development participates in the work of the Commission on the ongoing basis.

Thus, in FAS opinion, some streamlining and unification of tariff regulation has taken. “At the same time, the State Duma is considering a draft law on flat duty for prejudicial disputes and disagreements. FAS proposes that it should be 120 000 RUB. Last week the draft law was adopted by the State Duma in the first reading and hopefully it will be soon passed in the second and third readings”, clarifiedDeputy Head of FAS.

Finally, Sergey Puzyrevskiy said that the draft law on state tariff regulation is submitted to the Government of the Russian Federation, the discussion continues. All participants, however, emphasize the importance of adopting it.