Tariffs are decorated with modesty

Mikhail Kasyanov conveyed the will of the president to the monopolists

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who came under cross-criticism from right-wing and left-wing parties on the eve of the parliamentary and presidential elections, yesterday publicly demonstrated his commitment to Vladimir Putin’s line. At yesterday's government meeting, where plans to increase tariffs for natural monopolies in 2004 were discussed, he informed those present that, like the president, he is categorically against increasing tariffs for services of natural monopolies at the expense of the population. To prevent this statement from being considered declarative, the prime minister immediately harshly criticized Gazprom, RAO UES of Russia and the Ministry of Railways, as well as his cabinet colleagues who were ready to follow the lead of the monopolists.

It is obvious that Mr. Kasyanov was inspired to rebuke gas workers, energy workers and railway workers by the president’s message to the Federal Assembly . Let us recall that Vladimir Putin in his speech spoke very unflatteringly about monopolists, saying that they, being themselves not very effective business executives, are strangling the competitive sector of the economy. “State-regulated tariffs for the products and services of infrastructure monopolies are increasing at a pace that outstrips price growth in the free sector of the Russian economy,” the head of state said. “As a result of this, the redistribution of economic resources in favor of the monopoly sector increases, and its share in the Russian economy increases.” Calling the continuation of such a policy “the path to stagnation,” Vladimir Putin ordered the government to strictly monitor tariff policy.

Mikhail Kasyanov tried to fulfill this instruction without delaying it. Stressing that the country should not “bear the costs of the organizational failure of monopolists and their infrastructure reforms,” the head of government explained why the increase in tariffs seems unjustified to him. First of all, Gazprom got it - the prime minister accused the concern of trying to introduce world gas prices into the domestic market. Mr. Kasyanov was also not satisfied with the explanations of the deputy chairman of the board of the gas company, Alexander Ryazanov, that Gazprom, in order to withstand the tax burden in 2004 at least at the level of this year, needs to sell at least 5% of its gas on the domestic market at free prices. But, according to the amendments to the tax legislation approved by the cabinet, next year Gazprom will have to pay the treasury $1.3 billion more. After listening to the complaints of the Gazprom representative, the prime minister only referred Mr. Ryazanov to the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and ideologist of fiscal changes Alexei Kudrin for clarification on taxes.

Then it was the turn of the Department of Economic Development and Trade, which the White House seems to consider to be the main conductor of the interests of monopolists, to answer. The main report was made by Deputy Head of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade Andrei Sharonov, from whom Mikhail Kasyanov tried to clarify what actually constitutes the increase in tariffs for the services of natural monopolies. It turned out that the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade is ready to include in this increase both the costs of natural monopolies and the investment component. This approach immediately found opponents - the head of the Federal Energy Commission, Georgy Kutovoy, spoke out especially harshly. Moreover, he even called on the government to refuse to increase tariffs from January 1, 2004, since “this sets an unjustified level of inflation in the country.” The head of the cabinet warmly supported Mr. Kutovoy. Mikhail Kasyanov stated that tariffs on natural monopolies should grow in line with inflation; these figures should not include an investment component, as well as unjustified costs of natural monopolies. According to the prime minister, their costs are precisely “a huge resource for the reverse process - reducing tariffs.”

In such a situation, the monopolists naturally did not have to count on an increase in tariffs in 2004 beyond the previously agreed limits. Therefore, the result of the meeting in the White House was the preliminary approval of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade's proposals: gas tariffs could increase by 20%, electricity - by 16%, and freight rail transportation - by 12%. However, Mikhail Kasyanov's position most likely means that the monopolies will not only not achieve an increase in these rates in the future, but may also be forced to settle for a more modest increase in prices. This was confirmed by the head of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, German Gref, who after the meeting told reporters that these figures are preliminary, and the final data are planned to be approved on August 5

Vera KUZNETSOVA, Alexey Grivach