OKSANA KUZNETSOVA: THE CURRENT YEAR 2020 WILL BE THE YEAR OF SUMMING UP THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL COMPETITION DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR 2018-2020

The FAS Russia continues a series of seminars-meetings with Heads of Regional Offices

On July 30, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk hosted a regional seminar-meeting of the regional bodies of the FAS Russia located in the Far Eastern Federal District.

Representatives of Headquarters and Regional Offices of the FAS Russia, as well as the Government of the Sakhalin region addressed the seminar-meeting.

Deputy Head of the Legal Department of the FAS Russia Oksana Kuznetsova spoke about the development of competition in the Russian Federation, the implementation of the National Plan for Development of Competition and the reform of unitary enterprises.

“In 2020 the three-year period of the first National Competition Development Plan shell be completed. We can already talk about preliminary results. Thus, in comparison with 2017, the number of violations of antimonopoly legislation by authorities decreased by 1.3 times. As of the beginning of 2020, 18 of the 38 expected results of the National Plan for Development of Competition have been achieved,” Oksana Kuznetsova said.

In the framework of the implementation of the National Plan a number of Federal laws were adopted, a fifth "digital" Antimonopoly package, a draft law  to reform the legal regulation of natural monopolies, draft law on the foundations of state regulation of prices (tariffs) were submitted to the Russian Government for consideration.

The abolition of roaming, a number of reforms within the framework of the Law on the contract system, the development of exchange trading and tariff regulation have become major achievements.

The regional block of measures was implemented at 100%: all regions approved key indicators of competition development, new road maps, made changes to the regulations of Executive authorities, and adopted acts on the organization of antimonopoly compliance.

On January 8, 2020, Federal law No. 485-FZ on banning the activities of unitary enterprises in competitive markets came into force. It establishes that the activities of unitary enterprises in competitive commodity markets are not allowed. The exception is cases when the revenue of a unitary enterprise from activities in such markets exceeds 10% of its total revenue for the last calendar year.

“The transition period for the entry into force of the provisions of the Law regarding prohibition of the activities of unitary enterprises in competitive markets is set until January 1, 2025. Currently when interacting with the FAS Russia the plans for reforming unitary enterprises were agreed and approved in 10 regions of the country: Kaliningrad, Lipetsk, Astrakhan, Amur, Tyumen, Ulyanovsk and Voronezh regions, the Republic of Altai, Republic of Tuva, the Jewish Autonomous Region. Plans to reform unitary enterprises in 46 more regions are in the final stage of development and approval,” said Oksana Kuznetsova.