Moscow press review for September 6, 2013
MOSCOW. Sept 6 (Interfax) - The following is a digest of Moscow newspapers published on September 6. Interfax does not accept liability for information in these stories.
POLITICS & ECONOMICS
The Russian government might freeze the tariffs of natural monopolies for a year. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered an assessment of whether rates for gas, rail freight shipments, electricity transmission, as well as heat and power for households should be indexed in 2014 (Vedomosti, p. 1).
The Russian government is beginning to crack down on high-interest consumer loans. Draft legislative amendments propose that the Central Bank calculate average rates for various types of loans and set allowable ceilings. However, the forced reduction of interest rates might not only cool the overheated consumer lending market, but also slow economic growth in the short-term (Kommersant, p. 1).
Russia's Economic Development Ministry wants to give businesses back an investment tax break that would enable them to save considerably on profit tax. It is prepared to allow companies to write off as expenses even more than they actually spent (Vedomosti, p. 4).
Russia's Finance Ministry is prepared to cut federal budget spending by 5% across the board in 2014-2016. As recently as July the government was prepared to cut procurements and investment, but not touch defense contracts. Now Finance Minister Anton Siluanov is only making exceptions for "priority expenditures" such as pensions and stipends (Kommersant, p. 2).
OIL & GAS
Gazprom signed an agreement with CNPC Thursday that sets out the main conditions of gas exports to China, except the price. The Russian gas giant will not link gas prices for China to the low prices of the U.S. Henry Hub index, but analysts still question whether the contract will be profitable for Gazprom (Kommersant, p. 9; Vedomosti, p. 12).
METALS & MINING
Belarus is not only fighting Russian potash giant Uralkali with criminal cases. Minsk is setting up a new trader that will essentially use the well-known brand of Belarusian Potash Company (BPC), has granted tax breaks to Belaruskali and lifted the 85-euro/tonne export duty on potash, which will make the company more competitive (Kommersant, p. 7).
BANKING, FINANCE & INSURANCE
Russia's Central Bank plans to introduce prohibitive measures in 2014 for banks that give out high-interest consumer loans. The risk ratio for loans with interest rates upwards of 60% will triple from 2 to 6, a senior Central Bank official warned Thursday (Vedomosti, p. 11; Kommersant, p. 8).
The list of candidates for the board of directors of the Bank of Cyprus might point to Russian depositors who lost their money in the bankrupt lender and are being repaid with shares: former Norilsk Nickel CEO Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, B&N Bank co-owner Mikhail Shishkhanov and Vitaly Yusufov, who controls Osnova Telecom (Vedomosti, p. 10).
RETAIL & CONSUMER MARKET
The State Duma's natural resources and environment committee has asked the Federal Security Service and prosecutors to stop the illegal activities of Chinese and Korean companies in Russian fisheries and take away the fishing quotas of companies affiliated with them. Following similar complaints, Hong Kong-based Pacific Andes had to sell its Russian assets (Kommersant, p. 1).
TELECOMMUNICATIONS, MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY
Mikhail Lesin, a former Kremlin administration official fired in 2009 on ethics charges, might replace Nikolai Senkevich as CEO of Gazprom Media, Russia's biggest media group. Gazprom Media, which is now worth an estimated 225 billion rubles, was created in its current form with Lesin's active involvement (Kommersant, p. 1).
Mail.ru Group, Russia's biggest Internet company, sold its remaining shares in Facebook in July-August for $525 million. In total, the sell-off of its shares in foreign Internet companies - Facebook, games developer Zynga and discount coupon service Groupon - earned Mail.ru nearly $2 billion (Kommersant, p. 10; Vedomosti, p. 11).
AUTOMOTIVE & ENGINEERING
Russia became Europe's biggest automobile market in August, overtaking Germany, figures from Autostat show. A total of 235,000-240,000 automobiles were sold in Russia in August, including 13,000-15,000 light commercial vehicles, while car sales in Germany fell 5.5% from the previous month to 211,044 (Vedomosti, p. 10).