FAS draft national competition plan calls for limits on expansion of state sector
MOSCOW. Dec 5 (Interfax) - The Russian government could limit the right of state companies and state unitary enterprises to acquire shares in any kind of commercial structures and may move certain natural monopolies into a competitive market environment.
An Interfax source in the government's financial-economic bloc said that provisions on the matter were contained in a draft national plan to develop competition in 2017-2018 prepared by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS). The agency finished preparing the draft national plan which and the presidential decree to confirm it. The set of documents was sent to a government expert council for approval.
Among other things, the national plan calls for imposing self-restrictions on the state regarding direct or indirect acquisitions of company shares on competitive goods markets and contains an obligation for large private companies with revenue exceeding 7 billion rubles and which receive state or municipal preferences to make at least 10% of their procurements in value in the course of a year from small businesses.
The national plan developed by the FAS also includes a gradual cessation of tariff regulations for a number of competitive areas and also defines basic state tariff regulations in terms of using the priority method of comparative markets and long term regulatory periods of at least five years.
The antimonopoly agency in the document also calls for procedural independence for its own employees and the financial activities of the agency in the framework of the individual state program.
