SERGEY PUZYREVSKIY: FAS INSPECTIONS EXPOSED MORE THAN 17 BILLION RUB UNPROVEN FUNDS

They must be excluded form tariffs in 2018-2020

The Antimonopoly Service summed up the outcome of exercising control powers in state tariff regulation in 2018. FAS carried out 11 inspections of regional tariff bodies, analyzed 3931 tariffs, and issued 86 orders, considered 225 applications on prejudicial disputes and tariff disagreements.

“FAS found 17.5 billion RUB economically unjustified funds in tariffs that must be excluded in the immediate three years”, emphasized Deputy Head of FAS Sergey Puzyrevskiy at the session on “modern and future tariff regulation” during the Research-to-Practice Conference on “Pressing issues of applying the antimonopoly law: views of the regulator, business and experts” in Kaliningrad.

He informed the participants that tariffs are regulated by more than 150 normative legal acts*.

“18 federal laws, 40 Decrees of the Government of the Russian Federation and more than 100 departmental regulatory acts currently regulate the pricing system in Russia. At the same time, in most natural monopolies regulation is exercised “manually” and tariff discrimination is present”, confirmed Deputy Head of FAS.

To solve tariff regulation issues, a unified law on the basic principles of state tariff regulation must be adopted. The draft law prepared by FAS and the Ministry of Economic Development is submitted to the RF Government.

The draft law formalizes a list a regulated activities, common goals and objectives, tariff-setting means, methods and procedures, specified the main provisions on investment operations of regulated entities. According to Sergey Puzyrevskiy, comparative analysis of benchmark costs should become the priority method of tariff regulation.

“The draft law also has the norms on saving. If funds are saved through costs optimization, they remain at the company’s disposal, enabling to use the saved funds for increasing performance efficiency”, clarified Deputy Head of FAS.

Finally, Sergey Puzyrevskiy added that the draft law of FAS and the Ministry of Economic Development on state tariff regulation must form a foundation for sustainable development of the economy and tariff regulation in general.

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The Conference was organized by the Antimonopoly Experts Association with FAS support.