September 16, 2015, 23:31 / Economics

The Ministry of Transport is ready to share with the regions the money that has not yet been collected - tolls for the passage of heavy trucks

The money could go towards financing local road concessions Yuri Nekhaychuk The amount of future revenue depends on the tariff; the option of 3.06 rubles is currently being discussed. for 1 km, the still officially approved rate is 3.73 rubles. / A. Astakhova / Vedomosti

The Open Government, on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, is discussing proposals from the Ministry of Transport on the redistribution of interbudgetary transfers. The agency proposes to allocate part of future payments for truck travel to the development of regional toll roads in 2016–2018. According to the head of Rosavtodor, Roman Starovoyt, in 2016, fees could range from 40 billion to 50 billion rubles. The amount of future revenue depends on the tariff; the option of 3.06 rubles is currently being discussed. for 1 km, the still officially approved rate is 3.73 rubles.

The money will be used to co-finance future regional toll road projects. They will be selected by an interdepartmental commission headed by the Minister of Transport. The cost of the project must exceed 1.5 billion rubles, the minimum investor share is 15%. The main criteria are an increase in the length of roads, as well as a decrease in the share of congested roads and funding from the federal budget. The weight of the criteria has not yet been determined. The Ministry of Transport and Rosavtodor propose that funding from the regional budget be proportionate to federal support. The cost of each individual project cannot exceed a third of the funds collected from trucks and available to the federal highway fund.

So far, there has been no final decision on the redistribution of funds from 12-ton trucks in favor of regional projects, notes an employee of Dvorkovich’s office. Rosavtodor is waiting for decisions from the president and the government, while a methodology for selecting regional projects is being prepared, says an agency representative: there are applications from more than 10 regions to participate in projects with this funding scheme. Among the likely projects, he names the construction of bridge structures and roads bypassing cities.

The occupancy of regional road funds last year averaged 13–14% of what was required; with such indicators, it is difficult for the regions to solve the problem of doubling road construction; they clearly lack funding, notes a representative of Rosavtodor. More than 60% of regional roads do not meet regulatory requirements, notes Stepan Svetankov, director of the KPMG corporate finance group, but the capabilities of regional budgets are limited; the mechanism can support them. While there are only preliminary estimates of revenue from toll collection and it is better to decide in advance how to spend it more efficiently, by redistributing road fund funds it is possible to help finance the road infrastructure of regions that face a lack of funds for construction, reconstruction and repairs, agrees Evgeniy Mazur from “ NEO Center.

The regions that will want to participate in the mechanism may be, first of all, donor regions, where there is both money and a need for infrastructure, such as Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Tatarstan, says PwC partner Dmitry Kovalev, if these are not large capital-intensive projects , the investor can be a bank or a pension fund. “ VTB Capital sees great potential for PPP projects in Russia and is ready to actively consider high-quality regional projects based on this model,” says Oleg Pankratov, head of the infrastructure financing department at VTB Capital. “According to established practice, such concession agreements are concluded for a period of about 30 years with a payback of 10 years and are long-term investments.”