Indexation of rail tariffs in 2015 to be 'mostly flat' for all types of freight - Novikov
MOSCOW. Oct 23 (Interfax) - The indexation of railway freight tariffs will likely be "mostly flat" for all types of freight in 2015, the head of the Federal Tariff Service, Sergei Novikov, said.
"For now we believe that indexation will still be largely flat. But it's wrong to say that we have all already agreed on this, even with the Transport Ministry for example. All final decisions will be made in accordance with legislation. And I hope at the end of November. The absolute deadline is the very beginning of December," he told journalists in Moscow on Thursday.
As reported, railway freight tariffs are set to be indexed at 10% starting January 1, 2015. At the same time, Russian Railways (RZD) has the right to vary the cost of its services within the "tariff corridor" set by Russia's Federal Tariff Service at between negative (-) 12.8% and positive (+) 13.4%. The service previously did this independently.
"As of now, the part of the procedure determining the macroeconomic component has ended. It's written, 'freight shipments - 10%.' But generally speaking, it's not written anywhere how much the infrastructure tariff is supposed to change for a certain type of freight. Previously, with average indexation at, conditionally speaking, the same 10%, a portion of freight tariffs grew at lower rates, and part were faster at an average figure of 10% overall," Novikov said.