Russia’s State Duma set to change tariff policy to lend a helping hand to inland water transport
The State Duma intends to address the issue of discriminatory tariff policy in the field of inland water transport. This will be a priority task set for activity in 2018 of the Section on Maritime and River Affairs of the Expert Council of the State Duma Committee for Transport and Construction, the press office of the Section chair Viktor Deryabkin, deputy of United Russia reported.
Also, among the Section objectives, is the regulatory support of federal target programs and the implementation of major infrastructure projects in sea and river transport.
By the beginning of the summer river navigation in 2017, RZD granted a 25% rates discount for the use of the railway infrastructure for transportation of petroleum products from Central Russia towards the southern ports. The participants of the river transportation market complained that this step will shift additional volumes of freight from inland transport to the railways, which has already faced congestions due to passenger traffic. To compete with the rail transport, shipping companies will have to reduce tariffs and operate in red. This entails other problems in servicing loans raised for fleet upgrade, create uncertainty among shipowners over new investments in fleet renewal. Eventually, the shipbuilding industry also suffers losses, the report said.
