Govt has decided to freeze Transneft tariffs in 2014 - Dvorkovich
SOCHI. Sept 30 (Interfax) - The Russian government has decided in principle to freeze the tariffs of oil pipeline monopoly Transneft in 2014, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters on Saturday.
"This is not stipulated anywhere in a regulatory document, but a decision in principle has been made. I mean a political decision," Dvorkovich said.
It was reported earlier that the Economic Development Ministry's proposal to freeze tariffs for the services of natural monopolies in 2014 was approved at a budget planning meeting with the Russian president in mid-September.
Transneft, meanwhile, announced that it had approved an investment program for 2014 and the period to 2018 totaling 500 billion rubles, including 348 billion rubles for development of trunk oil pipelines and 152 billion rubles for development of trunk oil product pipelines.
But the company said that plans to freeze annual tariff increases combined with the increase in the property tax rate would force it to reconsider and possibly reduce investment in the period to 2018.