Novelties in antimonopoly and tariff regulation, implementation of the Competition Development Standard were discussed in Makhachkala

On 14-15 July 2016, representatives of around 20 regional antimonopoly bodies in the North-Caucasus and South Federal Districts and the Central FAS Office gathered for a workshop in Makhachkalachaired by Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), Andrey Kashevarov.

Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the North-Caucasus Federal District, Sergey Mileiko; First Deputy Chairman of the People’s Assembly of the Republic of Dagestan, Yuri Levitsky; and First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Republic of Dagestan, Anatoly Karibov took part in the official opening ceremony.

Opening the event, Andrey Kashevarov highlighted the workshop agenda: the forth antimonopoly package, FAS judicial practice and tariff regulation, including the electric power industry.

"The emphasis will be also on developing competition in the regions, and issues facing the regions implementing the Competition Development Standard. The work will be productive and, I hope, successful", assured Andrey Kashevarov.

Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the North-Caucasus Federal District, Sergey Mileiko pointed out the importance and topicality of the event.

"In the modern time one can hardly overestimate the role of the national antimonopoly policy. It is development of healthy competition that is a guarantee of successful and sustainable economic development. It is important to understand that monopolization and unfair competition are not only economic issues:  today they also are of a social nature. Factoring in the multi-faceted nature of the efforts of the Antimonopoly Service, such workshops, designed to analyze controversial issues of antimonopoly enforcement and judicial practice, are a very good method to enhance efficiency of antimonopoly regulation", said Sergey Mileiko.

At the end of the official opening ceremony Andrey Kashevarov, top guests and the Head of Dagestan OFAS Kurban Kubasaev answered questions from journalists who were mostly in the issues of imposing additional services when selling mandatory third-party liability insurance and possible growth of prices for essential medicinal drugs.

"We were constantly saying that live-saving and essential drugs should not be pushed out from the market. The market is regulated, the maximum prices are set and accordingly the potential of the enterprises operating on the pharmaceutical market is practically exhausted. Therefore, the Government of the Russian Federation is working on a solution which will enable companies to continue their operations and it will not be associated with increased prices. Regarding drug prices in general, the increase in the regulated segment did not exceed 8%. Since a lot of drugs are made of substances purchased abroad, it is our job to preserve prices in view of the increased dollar exchange rate", emphasized Deputy Head of FAS.

Regarding insurance, Andrey Kashevarov said that FAS had been holding discussions with the insurance community for a long time, and was and is undertaking joint work with the Central Bank.

"Our colleagues from the Central Bank decided to introduce the so-called “cooling period”. It means that any physical person, thinking that a policy is imposed, can return the policy within five days without any costs. Regarding mandatory third-party liability insurance, the Central Bank must within a short period introduce electronic policies and such sales also will exclude imposing. I believe, therefore, that in this area imposing will be declining in the near future", pointed out Andrey Kashevarov.

At the end of the opening ceremony, Deputy Head of FAS handed awards to the staff of Dagestan OFAS and members of OFAS Public Advisory Council who are actively involved in developing competition in the region.  

Then the workshop followed its agenda. For instance, the Head of FAS Legal Department Artem Molchanov  focused his presentation on the forth antimonopoly package, mainly the most pressing issues of judicial practice of applying the antimonopoly law in the cases against economic entities and administrative liability for violating the antimonopoly law. Alevtina Timoshenko, an assistant to the Head of FAS, continued the legal line in the report on the “Pressing issues in judicial practices related to enforcement of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

Elena Rybachenko, Deputy Head of FAS Fiscal Control Department, discussed experience of implementing the Competition Development Standard in the subjects of the North-Caucasus Federal District.

The information given in her report not only generated an active discussion but also encouraged representatives of antimonopoly bodies to think about developing new markets of goods and services in these regions.

Dzhamilya Khallaeva, Deputy Head of Dagestan OFAS, reported on the issues facing the regions in the course of implementing the Competition Development Standard giving an example of the practice of Dagestan OFAS. 

The second day of the workshop started with a presentation by Yulia Popkova, the Head of FAS Regional Tariff Regulation on interaction between FAS regional bodies and the executive bodies of the subjects of the Russian Federation in the field of state regulation of prices (tariffs) in tariff-setting. Natalia Pronina, the Head of the Unit for Antimonopoly Control of Retail Electric Power Markets, FAS Department of Regulating the Electric Power Industry focused on an acute theme: controversial issues of antimonopoly enforcement in the electric power industry when investigating cases upon elements of violating Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, particularly, applying the antimonopoly law when electric power supply services for bona fide consumers are terminated.

Based on Volgograd OFAS practice, Anna Gadzhieva, Deputy Head of Volgograd OFAS discussed breaching the deadlines for techno logical connection to the grids.

Kair Babaev, Deputy Head of Karachaevo-Cherkessia OFAS; Abdulla Bagandov, Deputy Head of Dagestan OFAS; and Dzhamilya Khallaeva, Deputy Head of Dagestan OFAS, looked into new forms of unfair competition in the housing-and-utility sector; precedent practice of  Dagestan OFAS on holding liable for violating the antimonopoly law, problematic issues of cooperation between regional bodies and executive bodies of the subjects of the Russian Federation, local self-government based on the practice of Dagestan OFAS.

Finally, Elena Kosyanchuk, Deputy Head of FAS Department for Administrative Service, shared with her colleagues the changes in the legal acts on public service and talked about new aspects of professional development of public servants.