14 Nov 2013 15:21

RZD chief asks government to support effort to reduce purchasing costs

MOSCOW. Nov 14 (Interfax) - Vladimir Yakunin, the chief of Russian Railways (RZD) , has asked the government to help the rail monopoly secure lower prices for its purchases, particularly oil products.

"We are running into substantial difficulties in working on price reductions with the majority of counteragents, including fuel purchases. There are opportunities hear for supporting this work in some way. We believe that without it, there is a risk of overruns in our purchasing budget," Yakunin said at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

In addition, he said, cutting back spending on infrastructure improvements will reduce the reliability of equipment operation, although the situation is not critical at present.