HEAD OF FAS RUSSIA SUMMARIZED THE RESULTS OF THE MEASURES TAKEN BY THE AUTHORITY TO ENSURE SUSTAINABILITY OF SOCIALLY SIGNIFICANT PRODUCT MARKETS

The Head of FAS Russia Maxim Shaskolskiy said that the authority receives complaints regarding the prices for some popular medicines included in the list of vital and essential drugs (VED). According to the complaints, the prices for these medicines are higher in Russia when compared to the neighboring and reference countries. Maxim Shaskolskiy noted that currently FAS Russia does not regulate the prices for the medicines outside of this list. In the event the list will be expanded, FAS Russia is ready to work on the revision of prices taking into account the cost of medicines in the reference countries.

Following the results of a mandatory re-registration of all prices for VED, FAS Russia revised more than 14,000 prices. 7000 prices were reduced by an average of 35%, saving at least 40 billion rubles a year for citizens and the budget.

Furthermore, the Head of the authority noted that the authority conducted dawn raids of 165 largest producers of food products across the entire distribution chain in 37 regions. As the result, six cases on the violation of antimonopoly legislation were initiated, 4 warnings on the termination of violations and 5 admonitions on the prevention of violations were issued, 45 cases were transferred to the prosecutor's office for the prosecutor's response.

In Moscow Region and the Republic of Kalmykia, warnings were issued to “federal” retail chains, the execution of which led to the decrease of prices for meat in certain retail outlets of urban districts of the Moscow Region, and led to a decrease in prices for vegetables in the Republic of Kalmykia. At the same time, the average level of margins on socially significant food products in “federal” retail chains for the period from August to the present time has decreased by 7.3%.

Maxim Shaskolskiy spoke about measures to stabilize the price situation in the oil products market: amendments were introduced to the parameters of the damping mechanism and sufficient reserves of fuel volumes were formed at oil depots.

Moreover, the FAS Russia, together with the Ministry of Energy, improved the mechanisms of exchange trade, including increased sales standards. A mechanism for providing subsidies for fuel transportation has been developed for the regions of the Far East, which will reduce the cost by 4 thousand rubles per 1 ton.

The Head of FAS touched upon the topic of tariff regulation in the electric power industry, housing and communal services, and transport. According to the results of controling and supervisory measures, the service excluded more than 5.62 billion rubles from tariffs, which led to cost savings for citizens and legal entities. The authority implemented a set of measures to create unified energy zones of tariff regulation for the transmission of electricity, which allowed reducing tariffs in a number of regions.

Answering the questions of the representatives of the Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly, Maxim Shaskolskiy reported on the work on countering spam calls and simplifying the refinancing of mortgage loans. Thus, the service signed a memorandum with the largest telecom operators on the development of a system for tracking and excluding these calls in coordination with the subscriber. Two companies have already launched such a service, which made it possible to block 274 million spam calls. Two more telecom operators will introduce such a mechanism in the upcoming months.

The authority has also prepared a draft law that will simplify the transition from one bank to another regarding a housing loan and reduce the time to obtain the necessary documents.

In conclusion, Maxim Shaskolskiy thanked the Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly, the heads of the regions, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Transport for their joint work.