VITALY KOROLEV: KRASNOYARSK TERRITORY MADE SERIOUS STEPS TOWARDS COMPETITION DEVELOPMENT

Deputy Head of FAS described significant changes in the regional policy approaches to support competition

“After adopting the National Competition Development Plan approaches at the regional level have actually changed. FAS concluded Agreement on Cooperation with practically all regions of the Russian Federation under the frame of the National Competition Development Plan that formalize regional obligations. They give numeric parameters and specify the markets where competition should be improved but regions may add other sectors. Thus, they undertake extra obligations to develop competition”, explained Deputy Head of the Antimonopoly Service Vitaly Korolev at the session on “Antimonopoly regulation or support of national champions. Which vector should Russia choose?” at Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum.

He emphasized that many regions have already made progress on this way and intermediary results will be summed up soon.

“The Krasnoyarsk territory has made serious steps towards competition development. Moreover, practically all regions amended the regulations on regional executive bodies formalizing competition support as a priority”, clarified Vitaly Korolev.

According to Deputy Head of FAS, if a region does not achieve the key targets in some areas, FAS provides data and examples where a similar situation was resolved. In Vitaly Korolev’s opinion, it is another mechanism of competition advocacy.

Then he moved to digitalization of tariff regulation.

“It is a trend for serious streamlining of all processes, including tariff regulation. Overall, we would like to increase the level of cooperation with the Regional Energy Commissions and regulated organizations. We have drafted a unified informational-and-analytical system where regional tariffs bodies and companies download the necessary information using special patterns”, said Vitaly Korolev.

He added: “Another novelty is a “federal tariff traffic lights”. It will enable to prevent decisions that are contrary to the law or exceed the thresholds set at the federal level. It will reduce sharply the number of abolished decisions of the Regional Energy Commissions. Now the figure is several hundred decisions per year”.

Deputy Head of FAS expressed an opinion about “national champions” in various sectors of the economy, particularly, the electric power industry.

“Since 2015 competition on the wholesale market of electric power and capacity has stayed at approximately the same level. At the same time, if we look at prices they have been increasing by 1.4% annually in the First Price Zone – the European part of Russia and the Urals; while at the Second Price Zone – Siberia – they have been going down slightly over 2.7% every year. The industry performance is stable, which is a clear signs that “national champions” are not needed and it is not worth breaching the competitive state of the sector”, underlined Vitaly Korolev. “They are necessary only when operative decisions with the elements of national security protection are necessary, in this case – energy security. CDA and the current CDA 2 programmes can be such examples. The most important is that new investments will come to the electric power industry, and the price grown will not exceed the inflation rate”.