investment policy

A visiting meeting of the Union of Territories and Nuclear Energy Enterprises was held in the city of Udomlya, Tver Region. The head of the union, Governor of the Saratov Region Dmitry Ayatskov and Minister of Atomic Energy Alexander Rumyantsev visited the third unit of the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant under construction. The main goal of the meeting is to find additional money for the industry’s investment program. The money was found from Anatoly Chubais.
Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Andrei Malyshev said that the Ministry of Economic Development limited the volume of investments in the industry for 2004 to 23 billion rubles, while Minatom asked for 35 billion rubles. Nuclear workers, as it turned out, were ready for an “honest compromise” - not 35 billion and not 23 billion, but 29 billion rubles. The missing 6 billion, according to Mr. Malyshev, can be found in several ways. Firstly, we need to stop reserving funds to pay off the tariff imbalance on FOREM. This measure will add 2 billion rubles to nuclear workers. Secondly, if we adopt amendments to the chapter of the Tax Code on water tax, reducing the tax rate for nuclear plants (this bill is awaiting the second reading in the State Duma), then another 4 billion rubles will appear. If the deputies cannot be persuaded, there is another option - “a more reasonable use of the net profit of RAO UES.” Mr. Malyshev reasoned as follows: “The state can limit the amount of dividends paid to the shareholders of RAO UES, thus freeing up this money from the investment component of the RAO UES subscription fee, and use it to create state property: either for the development of nuclear energy, the completion of nuclear power plants, or to support the Federal network company or System operator." According to his calculations, the state can find up to 1 billion rubles for investment here. In the possible decrease in the capitalization of RAO UES (the state, as the main shareholder of RAO, insists on its growth), Mr. Malyshev also saw positive sides: when buying out 23% of the shares of the Federal Grid Company from RAO UES, the budget will have to pay less. Having thus looked into the pocket of Anatoly Chubais, Mr. Malyshev mentioned other possibilities. These are corporate loans (they need to obtain permission from the Ministry of Property), recalculation of depreciation and tax credits, that is, tax exemption for nuclear power plants until their construction is completed. The head of Minatom, Alexander Rumyantsev, approved his subordinate’s initiative, noting that finding money for the industry is now the primary task: “We have everything else—industrial and scientific potential.”
Dmitry Ayatskov, who outlined a similar position regarding RAO UES dividends in a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko, asked whether Minatom’s income from the import of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) could be used for investment. “The USA, England and France still do not allow Russia into the spent nuclear fuel market, although the adopted amendments on the import of spent nuclear fuel made it possible to defend Russia’s position in the market for fresh nuclear fuel, from which they also tried to kick us out. But we threatened dumping on the import of spent nuclear fuel (taking spent nuclear fuel at prices 30% lower than in Europe), and in Europe they realized that this is real,” Mr. Rumyantsev answered the governor. As for the longer-term investment perspective, according to him, in the future one could think about the privatization of the infrastructure of nuclear power plants not related to the nuclear fuel cycle: the turbine room, turbines, work canteens, in the end. But first we need to transform the Rosenergoatom concern into a joint-stock company. Naturally, with 100% state capital. “This idea is still being discussed,” the minister emphasized. Among regional leaders there were ardent supporters of attracting private investment, even foreign, to the nuclear industry. In particular, this was advocated at a meeting by the Deputy Governor of the Arkhangelsk Region, Vladimir Kolomintsev, who lobbied for the project to build a nuclear thermal power plant in Severodvinsk.
Meanwhile, RAO UES has already responded to the new initiative of the Ministry of Atomic Energy. “I like the original proposal of Minatom,” Andrei Trapeznikov, a member of the board of RAO UES of Russia, told Kommersant. “However, we must not forget that the decision on the payment and amount of dividends is made not by Minatom, but by the meeting of shareholders. Dividends on state shares are also are sent to the federal budget."
ALENA Kommersant-KORNYSHEVA, Udomlya, Tver region

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 106/P dated June 23, 2003, p. 7

Minatom coveted money from RAO UES