FAS HAS CREATED MECHANISMS TO ATTRACT INVESTMENT IN KEY SECTORS OF THE ECONOMY

It allows to build new infrastructure facilities

The issue of attracting investments at the All-Russian Tariff Conference in the economic sector, as well as aspects of control and supervisory activities, were discussed by Deputy Heads of FAS Russia.

Vitaly Korolev said that setting of long-term marginal indices for utilities in the Moscow region, Tyumen Region and the Republic of Tatarstan allowed to attract additional funds totaling 21.5 billion rubles. They were directed to the construction of 117 new facilities in heat, water supply and sanitation, as well as the reconstruction of 287 facilities in the same sectors of the economy.

According to him, investments in housing and communal services for 2023 are planned at the level of 411 billion rubles, which is 42 % more than in 2022. It will enable to modernize facilities and provide consumers with a reliable supply of resources.

Vitaly Korolev also spoke about the work of the authority in terms of free additional gasification of regions. For 2021-2023, 1 million 72 thousand applications were accepted, of which for 1 million 20 thousand 895 applications the contracts for additional gasification have already been signed as of October 20 of this year.

Gennady Magazinov, Deputy Head of FAS Russia, said that the authority has already made most of the tariff decisions. The authority optimizes time costs as much as possible so that regional regulators have the opportunity to set tariffs on time.

He also raised the topical issue of the uneven distribution of an economically justified tariff level between voltage levels. If the issue of the distribution of cross-subsidization between voltage levels is resolved due to the adopted Resolution of the Russian Federation, then the spread in an economically justified tariff between high and low levels can be up to 27 times in some cases. According to him, it is necessary to improve approaches to determining operating costs.

Besides, Gennady Magazinov said that an initiative is being discussed to limit the maximum amount of operating expenses for a conventional unit of power grid equipment for the largest TGO in the region. Currently the difference for companies within the same region may differ by 4 times.

Thus, the adoption and implementation of this measure will eliminate the tariff imbalance before the introduction of the "reference" principle. The effect in the form of a reduction in operating expenses of the TGO is estimated to be 13 billion rubles.

Gennady Magazinov also drew attention of regional regulators to the expediency of introducing tariffs differentiated by voltage levels for the population, which will eventually reduce cross-subsidization in the electric grid complex. He noted that it is possible to calculate the size of the cross-subsidization rate in a special order, depending on the availability of implemented tariff differentiation, which will prevent the risks of budgetary responsibility of the subject of the Russian Federation.

Regarding the implementation of the mechanism of regulatory agreements, Gennady Magazinov noted that FAS Russia has already received for approval 6 regulatory agreements for 5 subjects of the Russian Federation, including the Republic of Mari El, Omsk, Novgorod and Nizhny Novgorod regions.

Sergey Puzyrevsky, Stats-Secretary – Deputy Head of FAS Russia, spoke about the results of the authority's control and supervisory activities for 2023. After the moratorium was lifted, the antimonopoly authority conducted 60 inspections, 15 of them jointly with the prosecutor's office. According to the results of joint verification measures, 2.56 billion unjustified funds were excluded from tariffs, for example, in the Krasnodar Territory.

In the first nine months of the current year, the authority audited 1,005 tariff decisions for 226 regulated organizations and issued 74 orders to eliminate violations.